Your signal. Your price.
Radar Labs launched Radar Chat, a fork of Signal that integrates Bitcoin Lightning payments directly into chats and allows users to migrate existing Signal accounts.
Odell uses Signal as an example of a privacy-focused tool that achieved 100 million users by making compromises, illustrating the scale gap with centralized giants like WhatsApp.
Radar Chat was launched on July 7th, integrating Bitcoin payments into the Signal messaging app to leverage its existing user base and privacy-first design.
Signal has approximately 100-150 million monthly active users, providing a large, privacy-conscious audience for Radar to target beyond Bitcoin ideologues.
Vic Sharma targets capturing 10% of Signal's user base for Radar as a measure of success, noting Cake Wallet has 2 million users but serves a narrower crypto-only audience.
Radar Chat combines Signal's private messaging with Bitcoin Lightning payments, allowing users to send value directly within chats without needing to rebuild their contact network.
Radar uses Signal's existing protocol and network, allowing users to message their existing Signal contacts without requiring them to switch apps. Seth has been using Radar as his primary Signal client for months.
Radar's wallet seed phrase is Spark-compatible and can be imported into other wallets like Cake Wallet, Phoenix, and Blink. Users can also backup keys encrypted with their Signal account, allowing recovery via Signal login.
Signal's phone number requirement aids spam prevention and user familiarity, but Seth suggests using Cloaked Wireless for a private verification number, despite its $20-$25 monthly cost.
Radar currently lacks direct desktop payment functionality because Signal's design reserves payments for the master device. The team is exploring a custom desktop app but notes linked messaging to Signal Desktop works.