If you have been on X in the last few days, you may have learned about Bitchat, a new decentralized messaging platform spearheaded by Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter and CEO of Block (formerly Square). It’s exploring using Bluetooth in existing devices to have communications hop from one node to another.
A cool concept indeed- a Bluetooth mesh network, and Bluetooth is already available in many devices. But Bluetooth is also a crowded short-range frequency that is very close to WiFi in the 2.4 Ghz range.
Our first thought was “hey, Meshtastic already does this”, and it’s no coincidence that the official Meshtastic X account blew up with notifications of users tagging them in comments and posts galore with similar observations.
In doing further research we learned Dorsey’s idea is not inferior- it’s different and takes advantage of existing hardware. But Meshtastic is a larger ecosystem and may appeal to those who have learned about Bitchat but are looking for something more robust.
Our belief is that both are useful and that though both are mesh technologies, they are not competing technologies.
Jack Dorsey seemed to agree and plans to take a look into Meshtastic. Here is why you should too, in case you don’t already know much about it.
Meshtastic uses LoRa for longer range
Bitchat essentially builds a mesh network of Bluetooth devices. This could be very useful in a crowded environment- think of an emergency at a public building where users have Bluetooth-enabled phones but Internet/5G is out. But Bluetooth is very short range so if you don’t have other users within 10-30 meters or less, you won’t be able to network.
Meshtastic utilizes LoRa, using the public unlicensed 915 Mhz spectrum, which allows for longer range packet transfer. Distance of 1-10 km is normal in peer-to-peer connections. This is over 10x the range of Bluetooth. The record is over 300 km!
Whether your use case is emergency response, military comms, backpacking/hiking, or just the desire to stay in touch with people you know without corporations tracking you, Meshtastic requires far fewer devices in an area to provide mesh coverage.
Meshtastic is a modular and robust solution
Meshtastic runs on a wide range of modular hardware: RAK, LilyGO, Heltec, etc. You can add GPS for real-time location sharing, sensors (temperature, motion, RTC) as well as external antennas for better performance. Depending on your project needs, Meshtastic offers a number of integrations.
Meshtastic uses multi-hop, store-and-forward routing with nodes acting as repeaters, even when users are offline. It also uses AES-256 encryption with custom channel keys, allowing you to restrict access by group. Bitchat’s encryption is end-to-end per user, but open channels can be picked up by anyone nearby.
Bitchat certainly has positives and utilizing both technologies will make a lot of sense if your project has a need for the best of both worlds.
Congratulations to Jack Dorsey on his new project and for highlighting the importance of decentralized off-grid communications. More exposure is needed for all players including Bitchat and Meshtastic. We have learned the technologies do not compete and have purposes for specific use cases. We are excited about his new technology, and excited for the continued growth of Meshtastic too.
Military and First Responder 
