Is Signal going to double down on their recent surge in popularity and pivot into a crypto payment platform?
Or has this been in the works for some time?
I spotted the rumors being reported today on cointelegraph and had to dig a bit deeper to see what else I could find out. Are these rumors substantiated? Turns out they're more than rumors!
The main source of info for the Cointelegraph article is an article published by Casey Newton of Platformer in which he details an ongoing internal battle within Signal regarding the direction that the company is moving.
He cites a lack of content policy, which is the complete opposite direction that other messaging apps have taken. Recently we've seen Twitter move to further restrict and limit what type of information is communicated.
Apparently WhatsApp users have been receiving messages regarding updated policies that must be agreed to by February 8th or users will no longer be able to use the app.
The world needs products like Signal — but they also need Signal to be thoughtful,” said Gregg Bernstein, a former user researcher who left the organization this month over his concerns. “It’s not only that Signal doesn’t have these policies in place. But they’ve been resistant to even considering what a policy might look like.
Signal is a Non Profit with a focus on end to end encryption. That's it, simple as that,..right?
From the article that I read on platformer the concerns are that Signal is not going to be involved in censorship activities, and enabling cryptocurrency payments will only be exploited by bad actors.
Because we all know Bitcoin is only used for nefarious reasons!
And after all giving people tools to communicate in groups with end to end privacy is scary right? I mean why would we not want to be spied on and have our data farmed en masse.
Integrated Crypto Payments
Introducing Moxie Marlinspike, the creator and co-founder of end-to-end encryption messaging app Signal.
Marlinspike also happens to be an adviser to MobileCoin which is a cryptocurrency payments protocol built on the Stellar blockchain, It's designed around making mobile payments easier, and possibly untraceable...?
When reading the MobileCoin whitepaper I discover that Marlinspike isn't just an advisor, he's listed as CTO.
Marlinspike played down the potential of crypto payments in Signal, saying only that the company had done some “design explorations” around the idea. But significant engineering resources have been devoted to developing MobileCoin integrations in recent quarters, former employees said.
Ok, so I think we just heard it from the horses mouth, the creator and co-founder of Signal doesn't want to give too much info away. However "former employees" are saying saying significant resources were committed to integrating MobileCoin...
So it's not that Signal is creating a new cryptocurrency, there's potentially plans to incorporate an existing one in MobileCoin.
MobileCoin, a cryptocurrency advised by the creator of Signal, just raised $30M for mobile payments
So with a little help from some friends, namely Binance Labs, MobileCoin was able to raise $30M back in 2018.
A new privacy-centric cryptocurrency project with some big names on board just raised a round worth noting. On Tuesday, the team at MobileCoin announced that Binance Labs, the major blockchain incubator associated with the Binance exchange, led a $30 million round denominated in bitcoin and ether for the new cryptocurrency. MobileCoin will enjoy “priority consideration” for being listed on Binance as part of the relationship. - Techcrunch.com
Last time I check 2 + 2 still = 4, so it looks as though Signal App has been working on MobileCoin integration to "serve the under banked".
And lets be honest, this also helps give the App appeal to a large and growing tech centric crowd already interested in privacy, as we inch closer and closer every year to mainstream crypto adoption.
Ciao for now,