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Signal adds a payments feature with a privacy-focused cryptocurrency

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

#491

Post by thiagocsf »

MichaelMoser123 wrote: post #454
Geee wrote: post #83

There are 250 million units of mobilecoin, and majority of them are owned by the founders. Only 37.5 million have been distributed. With current price ($65), they're worth $14B already. This makes the project a scam and impossible for it to work as a reliable money that holds value. Bitcoin had no pre-mine and has been fairly distributed from the start.

look at the chart: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/mobilecoin/ the integration with signal made the valuation of mobilecoint jump from around zero to 65$. I hope the signal team got some mobilecoins in return for the favor.

It was $6 two weeks ago. Still a big jump but hardly “zero”.

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

#492

Post by cookiengineer »

fastball wrote: post #489
cookiengineer wrote: post #470

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious: why did you choose Signal when you care about privacy?

Probably because all conversations (1-to-1 and group chats) are E2EE.

> Probably because all conversations (1-to-1 and group chats) are E2EE.

They are in WhatsApp, too. At least Facebook still claims that after the Snowden leaks :) And: Did you verify this? Did you check the source code at signal's android/ios client repo? Did you also verify that no untrusted third party receives your backed up private keys?

Why do you trust Google more than Facebook? [1]

[1] https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/blob/d74e9f74103...

I'm not trying to troll here. I'm trying to point out that babbling about crypto is easy. Verifying it, and actually caring about it is another thing. Most users are probably also the wrong audience for early adoption of TOX.

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

#494

Post by SwimSwimHungry »

warkdarrior wrote: post #363
adamsvystun wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not entirely true. There has been a delay (11 month) in the sync of the server code with a public GitHub repo. Currently all commits are there: https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Server/commits/master

> There has been a delay (11 month) in the sync That is quite an understatement. This is like Facebook saying "we will protect your privacy, but there is a slight delay".

And to wit, the sync only occurred once major tech media outlets started to notice. Thus the sync happened to throw them off the scent. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, if you will.

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

#495

Post by GoblinSlayer »

TriNetra wrote: post #475
meowfly wrote: post #195

The comment from the article echos my own sentiments: > Speaking solely as a person who is really into encrypted messaging, it terrifies me that they're going to take this really clean story of an encrypted messenger and mix it up with the nightmare of laws and regulations and vulnerability that is cryptocurrency. Moreover, there are three other points I'd add: 1. I don't like "do everything" apps like WeChat or Line…

I don't know how will it play out for Signal in countries which have banned or are planning to ban crypto as a currency. RBI had issued policy to banks to stop providing banking services to people/organizations holding/trading in crypto. Though the blanket ban was invalidated by the supreme court after two years, but using it as currency is against Indian Law and the government is working on a new law to further rest…

Do we have a CVE for the regulator vulnerability yet?

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

#496

Post by SwimSwimHungry »

fuzxi wrote: post #436
lrvick wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then why use Signal at all? You had to have KYC to get a phone number in most countries which you had to give to Signal which could expose your location etc via tower pings to anyone you communicate with unless you port it to a VoIP number (how many know how to do that?) You also had to provide a phone number to get a Google or Apple account to install Signal because anonymous signed install methods are not supported…

>You also had to provide a phone number to get a Google or Apple account to install Signal because anonymous signed install methods are not supported, which moxie says is intentional to collect analytics. Signal distributes a standalone APK for android, which does function without google play services. https://signal.org/android/apk/

Yes it functions, like on my de-Googled Pixel 3a running GrapheneOS. But it's not particularly reliable in my experience, especially if you don't have the gapps services.

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

#497

Post by GoblinSlayer »

meowfly wrote: post #195

The comment from the article echos my own sentiments: > Speaking solely as a person who is really into encrypted messaging, it terrifies me that they're going to take this really clean story of an encrypted messenger and mix it up with the nightmare of laws and regulations and vulnerability that is cryptocurrency. Moreover, there are three other points I'd add: 1. I don't like "do everything" apps like WeChat or Line…

And FBI associates "e2ee" with "terrorism".

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

#498

Post by i5heu »

Signal has a lot of red flags.

1. The system is not distributed

2. The server is not open source and there was no notice that open sourcing the server will stop.

3. there is no public roadmap nor a away to make feature requests

And that’s not all by far.

My go to messenger is matrix.

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

#499

Post by ranguna »

josh2600 wrote: post #441
hiq wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi, I still have to read the docs more thoroughly, but given that these HN threads die out quickly, I'd rather ask now that I have the chance, so forgive me if some of these are answered in the docs: 1. how does MobileCoin make money? 2. how many coins do you / does MobileCoin own? 3. related to that, are there mechanisms in place to prove that this is not a pump and dump? Or simply, how do I know it's not one and it…

1) MobileCoin will build a payments ecosystem around the protocol. 2) I have to check with the lawyers on whether we can disclose exact amounts, but our intention is to own a small minority of coins over the long term. We want the supply to circulate. 3) I don’t know how to prove this other than to tell you that MobileCoin is here to stay. You’ll know us by our deeds. 4) the threat model is 100% of nodes being compro…

1% of nodes can keep the data intact?

This smells of centralisation.

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

#500

Post by godelski »

freeone3000 wrote: post #401
ImprovedSilence wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my view there are worse ways to make money from a chat app. Like selling all your users data. Ir worse yet just selling out to FB. At least a crypto scheme can maybe be the cash cow that helps them keep true to the privacy aspect....

I'm really tired of every single company going through some abusive scam or data harvesting scheme to avoid simply charging me money.

Isn't this because most users have decided that charging money is a death sentence? Hell, there's a HN article on this like every month.
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