Earlier this week, following a series of violent protests and a brief social media ban triggered by corruption, the peer-to-peer messaging app Bitchat, launched by Block CEO Jack Dorsey, was downloaded over 48,000 times in Nepal.
Bitcoin (BTC) open-source developer "callebtc"—a member of the Bitchat project team—stated that downloads of Bitchat also surged in Indonesia after protests related to corruption erupted last week.
Callebtc posted on the X platform on Wednesday: "Last week, we noticed a sudden increase in Bitchat downloads during the nationwide protests in Indonesia. Today, the surge in downloads is even more significant due to youth protests in Nepal triggered by government corruption and the social media ban."
According to a chart shared by callebtc, downloads in Nepal were less than 3,344 last Wednesday, but climbed to 48,781 by Monday—more than four times that of Indonesia, which had 11,324 downloads.
The brief social media ban sparked this download surge. The government blocked Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and YouTube, igniting protests primarily led by Generation Z, which resulted in arson attacks on the Nepalese parliament and the Supreme Court. The Nepalese government initially implemented the ban to curb the spread of anti-government content online.
Security forces responded forcefully, using live ammunition and tear gas, resulting in at least 19 deaths and hundreds of injuries. The government building of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli was also stormed.
Oli has come under scrutiny due to corruption allegations, including misappropriation of funds and lack of transparency in political decision-making, and he has since resigned from his position as Prime Minister.
The events in Nepal and Indonesia may reflect a growing trend of citizens turning to decentralized, encrypted messaging applications to guard against government surveillance or censorship.
Meanwhile, the European Union is set to pass a "chat regulation bill," which will eliminate message encryption and require services like Telegram, WhatsApp, and Signal to allow regulatory bodies to review messages before they are encrypted and sent.
Legislators from 15 EU member states have expressed support for the bill, while a vote in Germany may determine whether this controversial legislation passes.
Currently, users are primarily shifting from centralized communication platforms to decentralized, encrypted messaging applications to evade content censorship or other restrictions.
The most popular centralized communication platforms include Messenger and WhatsApp, both operated by social media giant Meta, a centralized company that profits from personal data.
Dorsey launched the beta version of Bitchat in July, which enables encrypted communication without the internet using Bluetooth Mesh networks.
According to the white paper, the network is fully decentralized, requiring no central servers, accounts, email, or phone number registration, and does not rely on any infrastructure.
Messaging applications like Signal, Nostr-based Damus, Session, and Status are attracting users seeking safer, censorship-resistant alternatives.
However, decentralized, encrypted messaging applications still have a long way to go before they can compete with social media giants like Meta. Applications such as Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram under Meta had an average of 3.48 billion daily users in June.
The user base of 3.48 billion represents a year-on-year growth of 6%, indicating that the platform's growth momentum has not slowed in the past 12 months.
Related: Opinion: The real arms race in the Asian blockchain industry is in blockchain space, not TPS.
Original article: “Intense Anti-Corruption Protests Erupt in Nepal, Citizens Turn to Jack Dorsey’s Messaging App Bitchat”
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