Signal Adds Cryptocurrency Support • Hacker News Board

Re: Signal Adds Cryptocurrency Support

#161

Post by sneak » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 1:51 PM UTC

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #158

sneak wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The (IMHO bogus) argument Schneier was making was that it muddles the morality of the situation, not whether or not it is or isn't, or should or should not be illegal: just that it would invite "meddling" (his word).

> it muddles the morality of the situation For most people, it does. I hold political free speech protections as sacrosanct. I do not have the same view towards dark money. Putting my views and morality aside, the law treats commercial and non-commercial speech differently. Integrating payments lets the government subpoena records (and more) under AML/ATF law. Those laws are powerful and broadly supported. Totally se…

I think Signal is already very widely used today to transmit cryptocurrency payment addresses privately.

Re: Signal Adds Cryptocurrency Support

#162

Post by skinkestek » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 1:52 PM UTC

agd wrote: post #68

simion314 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That seems wrong, is like if Mozilla forces crypto in Firefox. there will be many Firefox users that will not like it, it is not only the haters or Chrome users that will complain, hopefully maybe you can see the missing 4th perspective.

I don't believe the main competitors to Firefox (Chrome, Edge, Safari) offer a payment mechanism? So this wouldn't be required for core feature parity. However the two main competitors to Signal (Telegram and Whatsapp imo) do have a payment mechanism.

Do Telegram have that now? I actively use Telegram but can't remember having seen it - nor an announcement that it is available.

Re: Signal Adds Cryptocurrency Support

#163

Post by johnchristopher » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 1:53 PM UTC

jMyles wrote: post #8

I'm ready to jump over to Element (/matrix). Anybody else?

> jMyles on Aug 9, 2018 [–]

> I have recently switched to Riot (built atop Marix, which the author endorses at the end) for some family communications and yeah, I think I do prefer it to Signal.

So, there are indeed some matrix fanboys polluting the debate.

Pfff.

Shame on you.

Re: Signal Adds Cryptocurrency Support

#164

Post by bildung » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 1:53 PM UTC

sschueller wrote: post #73

bildung wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except the server it seems? I only see the various clients on github.

Like signal, their server code on github is not what they are running.

With signal, there is at least the occosional server code dump. The threema server is closed source.

Re: Signal Adds Cryptocurrency Support

#165

Post by tomudding » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 1:54 PM UTC

I think they could have spent their time better on some much more needed features/improvements, instead of adding a payment system (with imho bad cryptocurrency).

Re: Signal Adds Cryptocurrency Support

#166

Post by 2pEXgD0fZ5cF » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 1:55 PM UTC

vageli wrote: post #11

dd36 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn’t cryptocurrency inherently public?

The transactions are but the identities of participants are not.

Theoretically, yes, but practically? Countries like Germany already legally require you to provide your ID to buy cryptocoins at non shady businesses.

So in reality for most people crypto remains perfectly tracable for all time to their identities. But then again, no one uses crypto as a peer to peer currency anyways...

Re: Signal Adds Cryptocurrency Support

#167

Post by teekert » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 1:55 PM UTC

agd wrote: post #35

I think there are 3 attitudes towards Signal: 1. Anger from purists who care about the fact it's not decentralised, and that Moxie runs the show, and that it uses phone numbers etc etc... 2. Indifference from those who have never heard of it 3. Joy from those who are extremely happy a decent, private, alternative to Facebook/Whatsapp exists My worry is that group 1) try and ruin it for the rest of us. Signal is liter…

Fully agree, group 1 should just focus on pushing Element.io and perhaps try to make it as easy (by default at least) as Signal. Signal is a drop-in replacement for Whatsapp (except for that nagging for a pin that really nobody of my normy friends/family understands and I help them turn it off, none of them expect continuity from phone to phone anyway) and that is it's strength.

Re: Signal Adds Cryptocurrency Support

#168

Post by jerry1979 » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 1:58 PM UTC

syrrim wrote: post #108

>I see no good reason to do this. Secure communications and secure transactions can be separate apps, The reason is pretty clear. Transactions require two parties to both be using the app. If you spin out a separate app, then most people won't have it installed nor be able to use it, and therefore won't be able to transact with it. This leads to a chicken and egg problem: if no one is using the app, then there's no p…

I imagine signal+mob will have an honest foundation-style grant system which will give tons of money to groups that did not get included in the first crypto wave.

Re: Signal Adds Cryptocurrency Support

#169

Post by fsflover » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 1:58 PM UTC

agd wrote: post #35

I think there are 3 attitudes towards Signal: 1. Anger from purists who care about the fact it's not decentralised, and that Moxie runs the show, and that it uses phone numbers etc etc... 2. Indifference from those who have never heard of it 3. Joy from those who are extremely happy a decent, private, alternative to Facebook/Whatsapp exists My worry is that group 1) try and ruin it for the rest of us. Signal is liter…

> Anger from purists who care about the fact it's not decentralised

You can call me a purist if you like, but every single project starts failing when it becomes too big, unless it's decentralized. You simply cannot afford to serve millions of users without a profit. Telegram now has to include ads.

Re: Signal Adds Cryptocurrency Support

#170

Post by barbiturique » Wed, Apr 07, 2021, 1:59 PM UTC

ddevault wrote: post #92

firebaze wrote: post #36

I convinced quite a lot of my friends to switch to Threema. No phone number required, and really open source ( https://threema.ch/en/faq/source_code )

Let's stop making the same mistake over and over again. It is centralized, not federated, and therefore Threema is likely to suffer the same fate.

DeltaChat, it's encrypted email that present itself as a chat. You can use your own smtp, or use a existing one. It only needs to be able to create a folder locally and use GPG. ( the smtp, the client app has passed the mom test of installation )

Experience is below signal, but decent.