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Signal adds a payments feature with a privacy-focused cryptocurrency

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141–150 of 665 posts

Re: Signal adds a payments feature with a privacy-focused cryptocurrency

#141

This is garbage, and shouldn't be part of Signal. Everything on the internet is being corrupted with adding cryptocurrency scams where they absolutely don't belong, it turns Signal from an obvious recommendation into something that makes me hesitate. There's something to be said for focusing on doing one thing well, and that doesn't mean turning a communication platform into a kitchen sink.

With all due respect your comment seems to be coming from an extremely privileged position. In many parts of the world, people do not have the luxury of basic banking, where storing and sending money is fraught with risk due to corruption and a lack of infrastructure. Take a look at M-PESA [1] for a "last-gen" solution using SMS. I think what Signal is doing with MOB is pretty important work for many non-western coun…

This is a very privileged position.

Cryptocurrencies don't solve third world banking, at all. You still get paid in fiat, which you then have to convert to crypto (using a bank), and you will never be able to have most people get paid in crypto because then the government can't get taxes reliably (thus they will ban it).

Re: Signal adds a payments feature with a privacy-focused cryptocurrency

#142
post #2

Hi! I'm the CEO of MobileCoin. If anyone has any questions please feel free to ask here. We've been working on this project for four years and it has been a labor of love. There's a lot of new technology here. We exist in a highly regulated space so it's possible some questions will require reaching out to lawyers to make sure we answer them in a way that's compliant so please don't feel offended if a response takes…

Can late MobileCoin adopters buy the same amount of coin for the same price as early adopters or is it a multi-level marketing pyramid scheme like the rest of the crypto“currency” greed and spam inducing cesspool?

https://www.cynicusrex.com/file/cryptocultscience.html

Re: Signal adds a payments feature with a privacy-focused cryptocurrency

#143
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keys are not stored in SGX. Keys never leave the phone.

Can you provide more detail? ”Running MobileCoin in an SGX enclave allows nodes to securely manage keys for users. A client can perform remote attestation to its MobileCoin node before transmitting its keys into the remote enclave along with a short recovery PIN. The MobileCoin node can then rate limit authenticated access to the keys, while the enclave prevents the node operator or anyone who compromises the node fr…

See #5 for more details: https://github.com/mobilecoinfoundation/mobilecoin#faq

> 5. Will I need to put my keys on a remote server to scan the blockchain for incoming transactions?

> Keys will never leave your mobile device. This is a challenging problem and we are very excited to share our solution when we release our mobile SDK software.

Re: Signal adds a payments feature with a privacy-focused cryptocurrency

#144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Moxie Marlinspike is listed as an advisor for MobileCoin, was this not a paid position?

Moxie != Signal. Moxie, as an individual, is a paid technical advisor to MobileCoin but the reality is that we could never pay Moxie what his time is worth. I am thankful that he has chosen to help make this project a reality.

That is just sad.

I've been a longtime signal user (since the textsecure/redphone days). I've always given moxie a pass on his controversial decisions (no federalisation, no 3rd party clients, no fdroid repo, relying on Google play services, being slow to release serverside source code) because the team was small and obviously had to cut corners somewhere.

But learning that they spent their time adding support for a (premined?) cryptocurrency just because it's Moxie's pet project is disheartening. What are the odds that this would've been merged into the project if it had been a merge request opened by someone from the outside?

Re: Signal adds a payments feature with a privacy-focused cryptocurrency

#145
post #9

The UK already has faster payments in all major banks. I can send and receive money instantly from app or Web. Will yours be as fast as that? The UK has a problem with authorised push payment fraud. Banks can recover funds which have been sent as a result of phishing / fraud. How can I reverse a payment on your platform if it was fraudulent? The UK also has receiver verification. If I try to send to an account and it…

> How do you stop harassers sending unwanted money?

idk, but this sounds like a great problem to have.

Re: Signal adds a payments feature with a privacy-focused cryptocurrency

#146
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looks like it depends on SGX, so basically delegates trust to Intel. Bitcoin doesn't depend on trusting anyone.

SGX is only used for an extra layer of privacy, beyond what any other currency offers. SGX is not used for the security of the currency. This criticism has been answered countless times.

Many cryptos offer forward secrecy and completely opaque ledgers without any reliance on SGX.

Re: Signal adds a payments feature with a privacy-focused cryptocurrency

#147
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried going to https://buymobilecoin.com/ as referenced in https://www.mobilecoin.com/terms-of-sale.html but get a Cloudflare "Error 1020" page. What's up with that?

This occurs when you try to access it from a US-IP.

Cloudflare lets you create custom error pages [1]. I would recommend making one for any geo-restricted pages. The benefit is that you can emulate your site theme and have an opportunity to explain the reasoning for the geographic restrictions.

[1] https://support.cloudflare.com/hc/en-us/articles/200172706-C...

Re: Signal adds a payments feature with a privacy-focused cryptocurrency

#148
post #84

Signal is still centrally controlled and compiled by a single entity and distributed only in an unsigned insecure form or in a signed/verified manner only if you give up your privacy to install with Google Play or the Apple store. Those that only run open source software like myself have no secure way to run Signal short of compiling every release by hand which is impractical. Moxie has stated he will not support any…

> distributed only in an unsigned insecure form or in a signed/verified manner only if you give up your privacy to install with Google Play or the Apple store.

> Those that only run open source software like myself have no secure way to run Signal short of compiling every release by hand which is impractical.

Nope: https://signal.org/android/apk/

Re: Signal adds a payments feature with a privacy-focused cryptocurrency

#149
post #84

Signal is still centrally controlled and compiled by a single entity and distributed only in an unsigned insecure form or in a signed/verified manner only if you give up your privacy to install with Google Play or the Apple store. Those that only run open source software like myself have no secure way to run Signal short of compiling every release by hand which is impractical. Moxie has stated he will not support any…

Even if an SGX attack does take place, tx's aren't recognized as the system is secured with Cryptonote's ring signatures (1st reply in FAQ https://github.com/mobilecoinfoundation/mobilecoin)

here too about 11mins in - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9afDQ_M5CU

Re: Signal adds a payments feature with a privacy-focused cryptocurrency

#150
post #9

The UK already has faster payments in all major banks. I can send and receive money instantly from app or Web. Will yours be as fast as that? The UK has a problem with authorised push payment fraud. Banks can recover funds which have been sent as a result of phishing / fraud. How can I reverse a payment on your platform if it was fraudulent? The UK also has receiver verification. If I try to send to an account and it…

> How do you stop harassers sending unwanted money? idk, but this sounds like a great problem to have.

I wouldn’t want to be barraged with messages from spammers because they’re sending me $.0001
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