Silent Link, a Bitcoin-native SMS and mobile data company, has quietly grown into an international service provider serving privacy-conscious users around the world at competitive rates. But how can young companies compete with the mobile data giants?
Born out of the Bitcoin industry and the brainchild of cypherpunk thought leaders like Matt O’Dell, Silent Link is a modern mobile data and SMS company that challenges the complex and mundane customer service of telephone service providers around the world.
In an exclusive interview with Bitcoin Magazine, Silent Link’s founding member (who asked not to be named, so we’ll call him Bob) tells the story of the creation of a company that solves one of the most common pain points for international and travel-savvy Bitcoiners, capturing data and SMS-verified messages anywhere in the world. The company has no support for physical SIM cards and offers eSIM-only services worldwide, making it a fully digital business. The Bitcoin-native design is also reflected in its pricing, which Bob says will only continue to decline over time, with prices already down 20% in 2026.
Bitcoin native and privacy focused
Born during the 2020 coronavirus lockdown, Bob attended Matt Odell’s podcast marathon, which inspired him to run his own BTCPay server instance. He thought that if he could come up with a digital business that would earn Bitcoin, he would have a reliable way to directly self-manage his stack.
After setting up a basic payments suite common to many Bitcoin companies, consisting of a BTCPay server, an open source stack with Lightning support, and a complete invoicing and accounting backend, Bob realized he now needed a product. It didn’t take long for him and his growing team to realize that offering modern data and SMS services might just be the perfect product.
Today, Silent Link offers users around the world data rates that rival those of telephone service giants, as well as incoming SMS texts required for authentication to traditional businesses such as banks and many online web platforms. The company does not offer sending text messages, nor does it support regular phone calls. Bob explained that these are scary protocols, fully monitored by governments around the world, and that their target audience is using more secure and sophisticated messaging apps anyway.
That’s why Silent Link is a Bitcoin company that puts privacy first. Instead of tying phone services to personal information that will eventually become deeply integrated into financial systems in many countries and appear in credit scores, Silent Link collects no personal information from users and provides a service essential in the digital age. Bob added, “Even your local data carrier doesn’t have your phone number.”
You can purchase Silent Link eSIMS without giving your email to the company. Bob explained that without user information, there is nothing to hack and cannot target honeypots, adding that so far there have been “zero requests for user information” from the government. Additionally, it aligns incentives between companies and users, rather than turning users’ data into products sold to third parties. Bob said the company is completely self-funded and felt this was also an important decision to align incentives with users, adding, “You can’t serve two masters.”
Users will get a special link when they purchase an eSIM. This code can be backed up the same way you store 12 words in your Bitcoin wallet. This simple secret acts as a key and authentication to the eSIM service. Bob added that this authentication model negates the infamous “SIM card swap” attacks that have caused multi-million dollar hacks in the industry over the years.
Automate roaming and movement
Designed explicitly to further refine the user experience and serve users who frequently travel or are sensitive to cybersecurity risks, Silent Link automates and hides roaming-related decisions when users travel or otherwise move from one country to another. Bob said users will be able to use the same phone number in most countries without having to obtain a local temporary SIM card, purchase roaming access, be overcharged or consult customer service for special purchases. Silent Link withdraws funds from your user account balance by simply connecting to a data provider within your local network, minimizing friction and keeping prices competitive.
Bob reports that Silent Link can bypass state firewalls, including the Chinese firewall, and allows users to use WhatsApp in Dubai, which has restrictions on the Voice over IP (VoIP) protocol. The eSIM model actually has a lot to do with this censorship-resistant quality unlocked by Silent Link.
Data sharing hotspot functionality is also not suppressed. This is essential for Bitcoiners and those who travel constantly, bouncing from conference to conference around the world while working online.
