Elon Musk said X is launching XChat with Bitcoin-style encryption
The post Elon Musk said X is launching XChat with Bitcoin-style encryption appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.
Elon Musk announced on Sunday through a post on X that the platform is rolling out an entirely new messaging tool called XChat. According to Elon, the new feature includes end-to-end encryption, disappearing messages, support for any file type, and cross-platform audio and video calling without requiring a phone number. He said it’s built in Rust, powered by “Bitcoin-style encryption”, and developed with an entirely new system framework. The feature works across all devices and doesn’t need a SIM card or cellular number to function, which is a huge departure from the way rivals like WhatsApp and Telegram tie accounts to phone numbers. Elon’s approach is built for anonymity, portability, and multi-platform access without depending on mobile carriers. New system uses Bitcoin-grade encryption but faces quantum risk Elon’s reference to “Bitcoin-style encryption” is tied to elliptic curve cryptography, or ECC. This encryption method is what Bitcoin uses to protect transactions and digital signatures. The reason it’s used is because it offers strong protection with far smaller key sizes than older methods like RSA. A 256-bit ECC key can provide similar security to a 3072-bit RSA key, making it faster and less demanding on memory or bandwidth. ECC works based on the math of elliptic curves over finite fields, allowing it to handle key agreements, digital signatures, and encryption through a structure that’s tough to break using traditional computing. But researchers are raising new concerns about how long ECC will actually stay safe. It was once thought that breaking ECC with a quantum computer would take an insane amount of resources, but recent breakthroughs show that it could actually be cracked 20 times faster than originally believed. That brings up questions about how secure XChat will be in a few years when quantum machines mature. The problem lies in what’s called…
Filed under: News - @ June 1, 2025 9:07 pm