Elon Musk Launches Signal Rival XChat, But Experts Question ‘Bitcoin-Style’ Encryption

Key Takeaways

• Elon Musk announced the beta launch of XChat.
• The new messenger incorporates “Bitcoin-style” encryption, Musk said.
• However, security experts aren’t convinced by Musk’s vague and potentially misleading statement.

Elon Musk’s X has debuted a new privacy-focused messaging service that competes with Signal and Telegram, featuring vanishing messages and end-to-end encryption.

Currently in beta, few details are known about the new messaging service. But Musk’s description of XChat’s security as employing “Bitcoin-style” encryption was met with skepticism from cryptography experts and the broader tech community.

Elon Musk Debuts XChat

In an X post on Sunday, June 1, Musk revealed that “XChat is rolling out with encryption, vanishing messages and the ability to send any kind of file.”

The new messenger also incorporates audio and video calling functionality, he added.

While specific technical details are sparse, Musk said XChat is built with Rust, a programming language that is recommended by the National Security Agency (NSA) for memory-safe systems programming.

Experts Remain Skeptical

Some security experts have criticized Musk’s announcement for making bold claims without offering concrete details.

“Needless to say ‘Bitcoin style’ and ‘Rust’ are not descriptions of an encryption scheme, nor are they strong indicators of security for a messaging app,” stated Ian Miers, a professor of computer science at the University of Maryland.

He added that “Bitcoin transactions aren’t encrypted—they’re signed. Signatures say who wrote something; they don’t keep secrets.”

Private Messaging Goes Mainstream

Musk’s XChat announcement reflects messaging apps’ wider adoption of end-to-end encryption and other privacy features.

While their exact architecture differs, popular apps including WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger utilize the Signal protocol as their encryption scheme. The same protocol is also used by the privacy-focused Signal app.

For its part, Telegram deploys an alternative set of encryption algorithms called MTProto, while Apple’s iMessage relies on PQ3.

Besides end-to-end encryption, disappearing messages have also emerged as a popular privacy and security feature in recent years.

First popularized by Wickr in 2013, Telegram debut the feature in 2014, followed by Signal and Messenger in 2016, and WhatsApp in 2020. 

While it doesn’t offer an auto-delete timer, iMessage introduced the ability to unsend and edit messages in 2022.

Is End-to-End Encryption Secure?

Criticism of Musk’s XChat reflects a general consensus among security experts: end-to-end encryption alone doesn’t guarantee privacy.

Signal has emerged as the preferred private messaging app for many business leaders and politicians, even being used by top U.S. officials to discuss sensitive war plans.

But as the controversy surrounding cabinet members’ use of the app demonstrates, encryption doesn’t always protect the content of messages from being uncovered.

No amount of encryption can prevent leaks if group someone accidentally invites a journalist to their private group chat

Moreover, the reason Signal is favored by users who are concerned about privacy isn’t that it has stronger encryption than its rivals. After all, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger also encrypt messages with the Signal Protocol.

Rather, Signal is favored because it collects almost no metadata from users.

In contrast, WhatsApp and Messenger share significant amounts of metadata with Meta. Likewise, Telegram stores IP addresses, message timestamps and contact lists on its servers.

While it remains to be seen which path XChat will follow, X does not have a strong track record for privacy.

The platform collects a wide range of user data and has faced multiple controversies over data security, government access and opaque privacy practices—some of which have worsened since Musk’s takeover in 2022.