Elon Musk Says New XChat Is Coming With 'Bitcoin Style' Encryption

Elon Musk's Cryptic Announcement Sparks Confusion over X's New Messaging Feature

In a recent announcement, Elon Musk revealed that X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, will soon introduce a new messaging feature called XChat. Musk touted the feature's capabilities, including encrypted conversations, vanishing messages, file transfers, and audio and video calls.

However, Musk's claim that XChat is "built on Rust with (Bitcoin style) encryption, whole new architecture" has sparked confusion among Bitcoin developers and cryptography experts. "Bitcoin doesn't even use encryption," said Bitcoin Core developer and OCEAN CTO Luke Dashjr in response to Musk's post.

Another high-profile figure, JAN3 and Pixelmatic CEO Samson Mow, echoed the sentiment, adding, "Bitcoin isn't encrypted." Bitcoin uses cryptographic techniques such as elliptic curve cryptography and SHA-256 hashing for key generation and transaction validation, not encryption for message confidentiality.

The link with Rust was also questioned, as "Bitcoin was written in cpp," according to Eliza Labs founder Shaw Walters, referring to C++. "Rust clients came later."

No further documentation has been provided by the social media platform, and attempts were made to contact X for clarification.

Musk's announcement follows a week of renewed interest in his companies, including the launch of another rocket by SpaceX and the $1.5 billion raise reportedly being eyed by Telegram's affiliated messaging platform, The Open Network (TON).

Additionally, X has soft-launched a new digital wallet, "X Money," marking another step in Musk's attempt to turn X into an all-in-one app. Musk's foray into encrypted messaging also comes after publicly denying a deal with Telegram, despite claims from Telegram CEO Pavel Durov about a one-year partnership with Musk's xAI.