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Comment by randomsearch | Hacker News Reader

If you haven't already installed Signal on your phone, please go and do so. To have alternatives to Facebook/W/I we need to build up network effects. Pretty easy to convince tech people to do this, and it would be a good start for getting Signal in as a replacement.

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Is signal decentralized? If it is decentralized, how is the network effect built? (Is everyone isolated on their server with a subset of all signal users, or is there a way to communicate with someone using another signal sever?).

It is not decentralized. All Signal users can communicate with all others.

It can be federated (and was in the past) but Moxie has complained about federation holding development back.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal_(software)#Federation

> It is unlikely that we will ever federate with any servers outside of our control again, it makes changes really difficult. https://github.com/LibreSignal/LibreSignal/issues/37#issueco...

So doesn't that mean a single party will control Signal? What prevents them from becoming the next Facebook?

While Signal is nice it's rather worrying that it's free. I'd rather use a paid alternative like Threema.

Good luck convincing your friends to buy any sort of IM application. It's already difficult now to convince them "just for privacy".

Easy. I respond on Threema within 30 minutes and on WhatsApp within half a week.

They are now in the process of becoming a nonprofit and recently won a $50m grant.

They haven't won anything. It was given to them by the cofounder of WhatsApp because he dislikes Facebook.

Nonprofit doesn't mean the developers don't have to eat. Money has to come from somewhere.

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