India Bans Jack Dorsey’s Bitchat App for Enabling Offline Bitcoin Transactions
The Indian government has taken action to ban the Bitchat application, developed by Jack Dorsey, which allows Bitcoin (BTC) transactions to be performed even during internet outages.
India’s top cybercrime monitoring unit, I4C, has issued an official order to GitHub for the removal of the Bitchat application, which protesters used to circumvent internet restrictions. Developed by Block CEO and Bitcoin advocate Jack Dorsey, this application is notable for offering offline communication and financial freedom. The Indian Ministry of Home Affairs requested that access to the code repositories be blocked within three hours, stating that the application allows anonymous communication and hinders legal tracking.
Released as open-source in July 2025, Bitchat utilizes Bluetooth mesh network technology. This system allows phones to share data with each other without the need for the internet or a central server. Despite the government cutting off the internet during student protests in India, activists managed to maintain coordination thanks to this technology.
Censorship Resistance for Bitcoin is Being Tested
The most critical feature of the application is its ability to transfer Bitcoin (BTC) transactions offline from device to device. Transactions carried between phones via the mesh network are broadcast to the system as soon as any device on the network connects to the internet. This ensures that payments continue during natural disasters or government interventions.
In a statement on social media, Jack Dorsey expressed that the Indian government does not favor these types of technologies. Although the application is currently accessible in app stores, the request for the removal of its open-source code has been recorded as one of the largest state interventions against Bitcoin’s censorship resistance feature. While GitHub has complied with similar requests before, the mirroring of open-source projects on different platforms makes it difficult to completely delete the code.