On Sunday, Elon Musk, CEO of X, formerly known as Twitter, announced the launch of XChat, a new messaging application. However, the tech community and the cryptocurrency market have expressed skepticism about this new offering. A key feature of XChat is its use of the Rust programming language, which allegedly incorporates Bitcoin-style encryption. Despite the excitement surrounding this claim, the crypto community remains unimpressed, with many experts raising doubts about the true meaning and implications of this feature.
According to Ian Miers, Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of Maryland, 'Bitcoin mainly uses signatures, not encryption. This is comparable to claiming that a rocket can run on water simply because NASA uses hydrogen and oxygen.' Encryption is the process of scrambling data so that only authorized parties with the correct keys can decipher and read it.
In contrast, Bitcoin transactions are not encrypted but are instead signed. In fact, all data exchanged between Bitcoin nodes is unencrypted, allowing strangers to interact with the network.
Miers further stated, 'The terms "Bitcoin style" and "Rust" do not accurately describe an encryption scheme, nor do they serve as strong indicators of security for a messaging application. Furthermore, unless encrypted direct messages are exclusive to the app, it is unlikely that they are solely based on Rust.' The price of Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency by market value, remained relatively stable near $105,000, having dropped over 3% the previous week, according to data from CoinDesk.
Other notable features of XChat include end-to-end encryption, disappearing messages, and the ability to send various types of files, including audio and video files, without requiring a phone number across all platforms.