As a background I'm broadly pro-crypto, in particular the privacy-preserving coins. >He is one of the most ethical people in the information security industry.

As a background I'm broadly pro-crypto, in particular the privacy-preserving coins. >He is one of the most ethical people in the information security industry. Connecting your communications history, your transaction history and your offline ID through phone number is an explicitly pro-establishment move. Something must have changed along the way about his originally cypherpunk positions. >Does it compromise Signals security as a messenger client? Not that we know. The problem is much more pernicious: through centralization, it makes the user less secure. In case of a privacy breach or court ordered document reveal or seizure, the scope will be much broader: communication history AND transaction history. Given that it will also list the transaction counter-parties, this opens up others to the privacy risks just as well. The correct solution: decouple messaging from your offline identity (phone number etc.). Decouple transactions from offline identity and from communications - proper use of cryptocurrency is good for that.