A new app wants to make sending Bitcoin as easy as texting — here's what that really means

A new app called Radar Chat, from the team behind Cake Wallet, launched this week with a simple pitch: fold Bitcoin payments into private messaging, so you can send Bitcoin inside a chat the way you'd fire off a text. The idea, founder Vikrant Sharma told Decrypt, is that the people we talk to and the people we pay are often the same people, yet messaging and payments still live in separate apps.

Under the hood, Radar is built on Signal's open-source protocol — though the company says it was developed independently from Signal and financially supports the project. It combines end-to-end encrypted messages with self-custodial Bitcoin payments over the Lightning Network, and it's available on iOS and Android. Because it's built on Signal's technology, the people you already message can come with you, without copying and pasting wallet addresses.

A quick explainer on the plumbing: the Lightning Network is a “layer 2” built on top of Bitcoin and designed to make payments fast and cheap. It's often associated with tiny amounts — a satoshi is one hundred-millionth of a single bitcoin — but Sharma said Radar has tested payments up to $5,000, with the real limit set by available network liquidity rather than by the app itself.

The core selling point is control. Sharma contrasts Radar with apps like PayPal, Cash App, and Venmo, which made sending money easy but are centralized: they hold your money, they can freeze your account, and they see every transaction you make. “Convenience came at the cost of control,” he said. “Self-custodial” is the opposite arrangement — you hold the keys to your Bitcoin, not the company.

That freedom comes with a responsibility worth understanding before you tap install. During setup, Radar gives you a recovery seed phrase to restore your Bitcoin on another device, plus an encrypted backup tied to your Signal account as a second option. But if you control the keys, guarding that seed phrase is on you: lose it, and there is no support line that can restore your coins for you.

This is information, not advice. A brand-new app hasn't been tested by years of real-world use, so if you decide to try it, the beginner-safe path is to start with a small amount, write your seed phrase down offline, and never share it with anyone — no legitimate app or person will ever ask for it. “As easy as texting” is a genuinely appealing goal, but self-custody trades a bit of convenience for a lot of personal responsibility.