- The Cake Wallet team launched Radar Chat, a fork of Signal enabling instant, non-custodial Bitcoin payments directly in chat
- The app integrates bitcoin’s Lightning Network via Breez’s Spark SDK, avoiding the need for users to run nodes or rely on custodians
- Radar Chat raised undisclosed funding from angel investors and venture capital fund Ego Death Capital
On July 7, the team behind popular wallet Cake Wallet announced Radar Chat, a fork of Signal that lets users send and receive bitcoin instantly without a custodian. The project arrives as bitcoin payments gain traction among users in developing markets, dissidents, and those excluded from traditional banking.
Signal previously explored digital payments through its 2021 integration of MobileCoin, which remains on the platform. The recent push to integrate bitcoin via Cashu sought to combine private messages with private payments, but Signal’s nonprofit foundation resisted changes that could classify it as a financial institution.
Radar Chat relies on Signal’s open-source code and existing user base, allowing users to download the app and use it like the regular version with added bitcoin functionality. The team relies on Signal’s servers, creating a risk the foundation could block third-party forks, though longstanding forks like Molly have not faced this issue.
The team integrated bitcoin via the Lightning Network using the Spark SDK from Breez, choosing a non-custodial approach that avoids turning devices into nodes. Radar encrypts the user’s seed phrase into the Signal profile backup for convenience, but the team stresses the seed phrase remains what users should truly safeguard.
Future plans include privacy-preserving cloud backups, a desktop app, bill splitting, payment requests, and stablecoin support. As marketing manager Lea Thompson put it, the goal is “getting bitcoin in the hands of people who don’t necessarily realize they need bitcoin yet.”
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