• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, September 29, 2026

One doesn’t expect privacy features to come from the blockchain and bitcoin businesses. But here is one from Z-Text LLC. 

The product allows users to develop a separate cryptographic identity for temporary messaging without registering a phone number, email address or SIM card. 

For the record, Z-Text is a blockchain-based messaging application built on BitcoinZ. It developed this as an extension of its existing account architecture.  

The system, which is now in a private beta program, will be released in early October. It will cost the customer a proposed fee of $3 per disposable identity.

“A temporary identity can be useful when someone does not want a short-term contact or conversation connected to their primary identity,” says Eric Pierrot, founder of Z-Text LLC. “The feature follows the same design principle as the rest of Z-Text: messaging does not require a phone number.”

Each temporary identity would have a local key. Access to the identity would no longer be available through the key once the user removes it. 

This is not about removing blockchain messages; the system distinguishes between cutting local access to an identity and deleting blockchain data. 

Want to get technical? According to the company, Z-Text uses zk-SNARKs-based privacy technology and a hybrid key-exchange design involving ML-KEM-768 and X25519.

This seems designed to protect privacy, but we wonder: Is the identity data stored, and can it be accessed by law enforcement if a crime is suspected, or by the IRS, say?

And, to look at it another way, this will prevent companies from capturing email addresses and phone numbers. But that’s not so unusual. Consumers can already create short-term email addresses.