A new app from the team behind Cake Wallet brings Bitcoin payments directly into private messaging.
Launched Tuesday, Radar Chat combines end-to-end encrypted messaging with self-custodial Bitcoin payments via the Lightning Network, allowing users to send Bitcoin via text messages without having to switch apps or copy wallet addresses.
“The idea behind Radar 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 places,” Radar Chat and Cake Wallet founder Vikrant Sharma told Decrypt.
Available on iOS and Android, Radar—which the company clarified is a separate company from Cake Wallet—uses Signal’s open-source protocol to let users send encrypted messages and Bitcoin payments inside private conversations without switching between separate chat and wallet apps, with private keys controlled by users.
“Rather than reinventing secure messaging from scratch, the team chose to build on one of the most trusted and widely respected privacy technologies available,” Sharma said. “Many Bitcoin and privacy-conscious users already rely on Signal, so Radar builds on a familiar foundation while adding something that has been missing: native Bitcoin payments inside conversations.”
While apps like PayPal, Cash App, and Venmo have simplified digital payments, Sharma said users often trade control for convenience.
“Apps like PayPal and Cash App made sending money easier, but they're centralized services,” he said. “They hold your money, they can freeze your account, and they see every transaction you make. Convenience came at the cost of control.”
Radar uses the Bitcoin Lightning Network, a layer-2 payment network designed to make transactions faster and cheaper than sending directly on Bitcoin’s base layer. While Lightning is often associated with small transactions measured in satoshis—or 1/100,000,000 of a full Bitcoin—Sharma said Radar is not limited to microtransactions.
During setup, Sharma said Radar gives users a recovery seed phrase to restore their Bitcoin on another device, while an encrypted backup tied to their Signal account provides an additional recovery option.
“Radar is developed independently from Signal,” he said, “but we deeply respect the work the Signal team has done and financially support the project, because we believe privacy-preserving communication is an important public good.”
Sharma said Radar has successfully tested payments up to $5,000, with transaction capacity determined by available Lightning Network liquidity rather than limits set by the app.
“For most people, Radar is designed around everyday payments—buying lunch, splitting expenses, paying a friend back, or sending tips,” Sharma said. “Those are exactly the types of transactions Lightning excels at because they’re fast, inexpensive, and settle almost instantly.”
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