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Signal creator is actively against 3rd party clients, because they "use his infrastructure for free": https://github.com/LibreSignal/LibreSignal/issues/37#issu

Signal creator is actively against 3rd party clients, because they "use his infrastructure for free": https://github.com/LibreSignal/LibreSignal/issues/37#issuecomment-217211165 https://github.com/LibreSignal/LibreSignal/issues/37#issueco...

stevenhuang 5y ago
EDIT: inaccuracies, see below. Moxie is also using his position as the creator of Signal to promote and integrate his pet cryptocurrency project MobileCoin as a payment provider for Signal, of which he owns a majority stake in. Technical merits of MobileCoin aside, it's not a good look. Signal is really not inspiring confidence right now. EDIT: Sorry, Moxie is only serving as a paid technical advisor to MobileCoin--it is not his project and presumably does not own stake in MobileCoin. So that's better, but remains to be seen what enfolds. Found a summary of events here if anyone can confirm: 1. MobileCoin premines 250m coins 2. Moxie gets paid for being on their advisory board 3. Moxie directs his non-profit to integrate MobileCoin in secret 4. MobileCoin offers 1/5 of their premine for sale. 5. Signal announcement spikes price to $60 https://twitter.com/lrvick/status/1379536536459431937 https://twitter.com/lrvick/status/1379536536459431937
- Klonoar 5y ago
  Can you provide a source for this...? The Wired article covering this has a note clarifying that both Moxie and Signal own no MobileCoins, and that he's been a paid advisor to the project. >Signal's choice of MobileCoin is no surprise for anyone watching the cryptocurrency's development since it launched in late 2017. Marlinspike has served as a paid technical adviser for the project since its inception, and he's worked with Goldbard to design MobileCoin's mechanics with a possible future integration into apps like Signal in mind. (Marlinspike notes, however, that neither he nor Signal own any MobileCoins.) https://www.wired.com/story/signal-mobilecoin-payments-messaging-cryptocurrency/ https://www.wired.com/story/signal-mobilecoin-payments-messa...
  - stevenhuang 5y ago
    Sorry, you're right. That was a misreading on my part. It is the case that Moxie is a paid technical adviser, not that MobileCoin was his project. I've amended my above post for accuracy.
- Klonoar 5y ago
  Two things, I think: 3) The "turmoil in Signal" article that made the rounds a few months ago had mentions of the MobileCoin work; I don't think is news so much as people weren't really paying attention. 5) The price spike, to my knowledge, was (partly) some whale at play. This is not a rebuttal to your point as I don't think anybody could prove this for sure tho, but mostly throwing it here for context.
  - pseudalopex 5y ago
    The article came out 9 months into a 12 month process. And expecting everyone to see every article about every app they use is unrealistic.
    - Klonoar 5y ago
      >And expecting everyone to see every article about every app they use is unrealistic. The article was posted here with significant discussion, so no, I feel fine assuming that readers of this forum (and certainly with respect to this topic) have a likelihood of having seen it.
      - pseudalopex 5y ago
        You overestimate how consistently and thoroughly people read HN.
        Klonoar 5y ago
        Sure. But that's better than having multiple commenters across these threads show you links indicating that this wasn't a grand secret, which you just disregard because it doesn't fit a narrative. shrug
        pseudalopex 5y ago
        The article you keep talking about[1] and the articles the other person linked[2] don't indicate what you claim they do. The article you keep talking about relied on leaks. Marlinspike dismissed the MobileCoin work as "design explorations" less than 3 months ago. They stopped publishing the server source just before they started working on payments. They started again just after announcing it. Someone who read the right article 3 years ago might have predicted this would happen some day. That doesn't change Marlinspike tried to hide they were actually working on it in 2020 and 2021. [1] https://www.platformer.news/p/-the-battle-inside-signal https://www.platformer.news/p/-the-battle-inside-signal [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26718488 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26718488

stevenhuang 5y ago

EDIT: inaccuracies, see below. Moxie is also using his position as the creator of Signal to promote and integrate his pet cryptocurrency project MobileCoin as a payment provider for Signal, of which he owns a majority stake in. Technical merits of MobileCoin aside, it's not a good look. Signal is really not inspiring confidence right now. EDIT: Sorry, Moxie is only serving as a paid technical advisor to MobileCoin--it is not his project and presumably does not own stake in MobileCoin. So that's better, but remains to be seen what enfolds. Found a summary of events here if anyone can confirm: 1. MobileCoin premines 250m coins 2. Moxie gets paid for being on their advisory board 3. Moxie directs his non-profit to integrate MobileCoin in secret 4. MobileCoin offers 1/5 of their premine for sale. 5. Signal announcement spikes price to $60 https://twitter.com/lrvick/status/1379536536459431937 https://twitter.com/lrvick/status/1379536536459431937

Klonoar 5y ago
Can you provide a source for this...? The Wired article covering this has a note clarifying that both Moxie and Signal own no MobileCoins, and that he's been a paid advisor to the project. >Signal's choice of MobileCoin is no surprise for anyone watching the cryptocurrency's development since it launched in late 2017. Marlinspike has served as a paid technical adviser for the project since its inception, and he's worked with Goldbard to design MobileCoin's mechanics with a possible future integration into apps like Signal in mind. (Marlinspike notes, however, that neither he nor Signal own any MobileCoins.) https://www.wired.com/story/signal-mobilecoin-payments-messaging-cryptocurrency/ https://www.wired.com/story/signal-mobilecoin-payments-messa...
- stevenhuang 5y ago
  Sorry, you're right. That was a misreading on my part. It is the case that Moxie is a paid technical adviser, not that MobileCoin was his project. I've amended my above post for accuracy.
Klonoar 5y ago
Two things, I think: 3) The "turmoil in Signal" article that made the rounds a few months ago had mentions of the MobileCoin work; I don't think is news so much as people weren't really paying attention. 5) The price spike, to my knowledge, was (partly) some whale at play. This is not a rebuttal to your point as I don't think anybody could prove this for sure tho, but mostly throwing it here for context.
- pseudalopex 5y ago
  The article came out 9 months into a 12 month process. And expecting everyone to see every article about every app they use is unrealistic.
  - Klonoar 5y ago
    >And expecting everyone to see every article about every app they use is unrealistic. The article was posted here with significant discussion, so no, I feel fine assuming that readers of this forum (and certainly with respect to this topic) have a likelihood of having seen it.
    - pseudalopex 5y ago
      You overestimate how consistently and thoroughly people read HN.
      - Klonoar 5y ago
        Sure. But that's better than having multiple commenters across these threads show you links indicating that this wasn't a grand secret, which you just disregard because it doesn't fit a narrative. shrug
        pseudalopex 5y ago
        The article you keep talking about[1] and the articles the other person linked[2] don't indicate what you claim they do. The article you keep talking about relied on leaks. Marlinspike dismissed the MobileCoin work as "design explorations" less than 3 months ago. They stopped publishing the server source just before they started working on payments. They started again just after announcing it. Someone who read the right article 3 years ago might have predicted this would happen some day. That doesn't change Marlinspike tried to hide they were actually working on it in 2020 and 2021. [1] https://www.platformer.news/p/-the-battle-inside-signal https://www.platformer.news/p/-the-battle-inside-signal [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26718488 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26718488