Signal has been a nonprofit for years and has no money issues: https://signalfoundation.org. The organization has no formal ties to the alt-coin, although Moxie does. It doesn't monetize the Signal foundation.
I'm very unhappy with this, but it's not a monetization scheme.
Even worse, in my opinion. If a nonprofit running a useful encrypted app was trying to fund itself by shilling some altcoin, I wouldn't be happy but I would be understanding.
If the lead of the project is inserting the altcoin for personal enrichment at the cost of the nonprofit and the useful project, that's pure and simple corruption. As far as I can tell, no good is coming of this (I mean, unless you're interested in actually using Mobilecoin, of course. Personally I have no interest in doing so, and if my Signal contacts wanted to send me money I'd say to use Venmo instead).
For a crass comparison, let's say you've got a friend named Bob. Bob likes blondes. He loves 'em. He's always talking about how he loves the blondes and could never be with a brunette or a redhead. One day you bump into Bob, and he tells you that he has just married a bald chick, who just happens to be very wealthy. How strange, that this guy, who always harped on this one feature, suddenly made a decision that was not based on that feature at all! Clearly, some other feature was the driver of his decision. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean that Bob is a gold digger. But wouldn't you wonder?
I've tried to rephrase this few times, because it seems too obvious to state, but isn't it a bad thing that a technical "lead" on an app is very likely going to personally benefit from some other technology being shoe-horned into that app?
It's his (and the Foundation's) baby, so he of course can, but I can't help but feel like this unholy but super convenient marriage will harm the reputation of Signal and MobileCoin. They could both sink or swim based upon the perception of the other.
Sorry if this is obvious. It feels like I'm taking crazy pills.
It's not for Signal, it's a monetization scheme for Moxie.
If Signal switched to a 'Lite' vs 'Pro' model, or other incremental features, or had more donation related nagging, I doubt it would raise the slightest bother.
Many people switched from other messaging apps on princple, much of that signalled (pun intended) by actions of the founders. This moves seems to be incompatible with many people's principles.
The crypto scheme however does not seem like a fair deal. It looks like monetizing through a backdoor under false pretenses. Exploiting the unsavvy rather than dealing in good faith.
This is especially bad as signal was 'the app we trust' for many of us.
Personally I'd like to pay for things (would like a system to manage it)...
Cryptocurrency is about network effects; more users, more value^2.
Today it is really the way to monetize a large collection of users, whereas it in the past perhaps was advertisement.
Perhaps it should be illegal in the same way a chain letter or pyramid scheme is illegal. However right now it is not.