Bitchat is now on Radicle • Hacker News Board

Re: Bitchat is now on Radicle

#31

Post by logicchains » Sat, Jul 25, 2026, 5:01 PM UTC

VCFundedGenYer wrote: post #16

Such a terrible name. Can't believe marketing didn't catch it.

It could be deliberate. Like Wechat's Chinese name is "Weixin", which is a pun on "for sex" in Mandarin (for which its "people nearby" feature originally saw heavy usage). As a decentralized social network, Bitchat might see similar usage.

Re: Bitchat is now on Radicle

#32

Post by all2 » Sat, Jul 25, 2026, 5:03 PM UTC

logicchains wrote: post #29

zenethian wrote: post #4

Is this bit-chat or bitch-at?

Find out on expertsexchange.com

Have you ever heard of the rather excellent Pen Island, vendors of fine pens? On my work computer, so you can plumb the internet archive for yourself.

Re: Bitchat is now on Radicle

#33

Post by HumblyTossed » Sat, Jul 25, 2026, 5:04 PM UTC

zenethian wrote: post #4

Is this bit-chat or bitch-at?

Yep.

Re: Bitchat is now on Radicle

#34

Post by baron3dl » Sat, Jul 25, 2026, 5:15 PM UTC

Bitchat is an AOS (https://andotherstuff.org/#foundry-projects) project. Surprised, they didn't rehost it on ngit (https://gitworkshop.dev/), which is also an AOS project.

Re: Bitchat is now on Radicle

#35

Post by tdkx21 » Sat, Jul 25, 2026, 5:19 PM UTC

culi wrote: post #21

embedding-shape wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like a suitable addition to the ATProto ecosystem :)

It's explicitly in opposition to ATProto. That's probably why they went with Radicle and not Tangled

It's worth noting the distinction between the auth layer and the data layer here. Tangled uses ATProto primarily for authentication, but it departs from the standard PDS model by offloading Git storage to knots.

While that's a clever hybrid, Bitchat is aiming for a truly serverless, local-first experience (especially with the Bluetooth mesh aspect). Radicle’s gossip-based P2P stack mirrors that vision more closely. In this case, Radicle isn't "better" in a vacuum—it's just the right tool for a project that wants to eliminate mediating servers entirely.

Re: Bitchat is now on Radicle

#36

Post by Cider9986 » Sat, Jul 25, 2026, 5:22 PM UTC

People interested in BitChat should download it just so you have it in case it gets popular or you find someone to use it with. I tested it and it's surreal to text without WiFi or cellular.

Re: Bitchat is now on Radicle

#37

Post by bigyabai » Sat, Jul 25, 2026, 5:23 PM UTC

guess_who_is_it wrote: post #27

jack promoted censorship when he was in twitter, now he is playing the saint card.

Dorsey's legacy is promoting cryptocurrency. Censorship is part-and-parcel with owning any social media.

I wouldn't worry about people going sweet on him anytime soon.

Re: Bitchat is now on Radicle

#38

Post by varun_ch » Sat, Jul 25, 2026, 5:28 PM UTC

lostmsu wrote: post #18

imtringued wrote: post #15

I hope they will enjoy fighting with https://radicle.dev/ over the project name.

One seems to be built on top of the other? Very confusing though, I agree.

I found https://radicle.dev/2026/04/23/domain-move

It sounds like both are the same project, one is the “explorer” which is on a different domain so that censoring it doesn’t impact the main site

Re: Bitchat is now on Radicle

#39

Post by thisisnotauser » Sat, Jul 25, 2026, 5:30 PM UTC

I love these posts, every week it's "Gloop is now on Ploof!"

Re: Bitchat is now on Radicle

#40

Post by TaupeRanger » Sat, Jul 25, 2026, 5:35 PM UTC

thisisnotauser wrote: post #39

I love these posts, every week it's "Gloop is now on Ploof!"

And at least one comment references "Curtains for Zoosha"