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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

#571
post #200
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…

> Not to mention you need to show government ID to get a SIM to use the Signal wallet for said private currency/messenger in 200 countries. There are less than 200 countries in total, unless you get very creative with states that are arent recognized more more than a handful of other countries, like Abkhazia or Transnistria. You also dont need ID to buy SIM cards in the US, so I'm curious on how valid this assertion…

Even in the US, the identity of most subscribers are known to the mobile operator.

It's a regulated market, so should the need arise to keep the identity of all subscribers in the future, it is likely not much more than a counter-terrorism-related law away.

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

#573
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.

Not really. A friend of a friend had this issue and it was a huge pain.

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

#574

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a friendly, easy to use chat app with stickers & voice messages (also strong encryption). Except it's not, strong encryption and privacy emphasis goes against easy to use. I recently got my family to switch to Telegram (because I like the interface) - my sister works in an environment where she has to have a separate work phone without a camera and everything synced up out of the box, history, etc. Brother lost his…

I recently switched WhatsApp from Android to iOS and I was flabbergasted there was no official mechanism to retain message history. As annoying as it is, it goes to show most people don't actually value it highly. Facebook would have no trouble funding a basic iCloud-GDrive bridge if there was enough demand for it.

https://9to5mac.com/2021/04/05/whatsapp-chat-history-migrati...

happening right now as a test

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

#575
post #385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, this is just what happens when you try to hit the page from a US IP address.

Why are you blocking the US?

Don’t want to end up in a US prison for the obvious scam they’re running.

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

#576

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MobileCoin is already liquid on multiple exchanges so the coins would just be purchased at whatever the market price is. It also doesn't make sense for late adopters to get the same price because there's a lot more risk associated with being an early adopter than a late adopter. This works both ways — if something bad happens to MobileCoin that tanks the price late adopters would be able to buy at a cheaper price bec…

>“It also doesn't make sense for late adopters to get the same price because there's a lot more risk associated with being an early adopter than a late adopter.” Often repeated but false. Early adopters mine or buy large proportions at negligible prices while late adopters mine or buy negligible proportions at large prices.

While I agree with the sentiment, that part is just the time-value of money.

The same is true for stocks, gold, and pretty much anything else you can invest in.

In retrospect it would have been a good deal to buy AAPL for $1.50 in 2005, but what can you do. That doesn't make Apple a ponzi scheme.

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

#577

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is incorrect. Stock represents actual ownership of a scarce resource (a company). That company would have value whether or not it was explicitly sold as a stock. The value doesn’t come from the stock. Cryptocurrency removes the underlying asset and simply sells shares of artificial scarcity. It’s only as valuable as what people decide to trade it at, because it doesn’t represent ownership of anything other than…

Stock represents actual ownership of a scarce resource (a company). Is there a limit to how many shares a company can issue? No, a board can technically issue shares unto infinity. There is no guarantee of scarcity, no guarantee they will not raise more money. That company would have value whether or not it was explicitly sold as a stock. The value doesn’t come from the stock. So when a company has no profit but a hi…

The scarcity is technically real, but practically pointless.

Every Bitcoin represents 100,000,000 tradable assets. If there are 30,000,000 Bitcoin in circulation that means there are 100,000,000x30,000,000 individual assets available to hold and trade. Do the math, and then realize that we’ll arrive at the heat death of the universe before Bitcoin is ever actually scarce.

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

#578
post #504

> MobileCoin only began trading as an actual currency with real value in December of last year—until then, it was running as a valueless "testnet"—and its 250 million coins, at around $69 each, are currently worth almost $17 billion dollars in total. No. This is simply not true. You don't arrive at the value of a set of "things" by multiplying the best price for a single "thing" by the number of "things" you want to…

That's the same with any stock, currency or crypto though. If you want to sell the whole market cap then it's worthless.

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

#580
post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

What are your (you guys) opinions on Session (https://getsession.org/), the Signal clone that uses Tor, and no phone numbers? Any significant downsides? Anybody know the team there and can speak on their trustworthiness, longer term intentions etc? What about the code they've added? Anybody review that? At a quick glance it looks like a decent but less user friendly alternative (no phone numbers - good for privacy, bad for grandma's to be able to adopt it easily). Thanks.
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