Signal Is Playing with Fire

> Last year, current and former Signal employees told me they were worried about what that combination would bring to the app. Anonymous transactions would likely attract criminals, they told me, and that in turn would attract regulatory scrutiny. Given that end-to-end encryption already faces legal challenges around the globe, they said, Signal’s addition of anonymous payments was a needless provocation. And it could give more ammunition to lawmakers who want to end encryption as we know it.

This hits the nail on the head and worries me about Signals future. For some reason I feel like this is their first step "towards the dark side".

So the point of the article is, because (maladjusted?) actual laws are against it, don't try anything? I understand the worries, but I personally can't wait for a way to easily and quickly give money to someone which doesn't involve Visa or MasterCard. In a moving world where new things are created daily, I don't like the monopoly those two have for years.

We have to play with fire. The alternative is a cashless future in which every transaction is tracked and every person is subject to total financial surveillance. KYC must die.

I find it hilarious that instead of using a battle tested and widely known cryptocurrency that relies on actual cryptographic techniques, like Monero or Zcash, they’ve embraced a crypto that basically no one has heard about, no one was using, and relies on Secure Enclaves for privacy. Which are very likely backdoored by Intel and/NSA or at the very least one hack away from total compromise. SGX has had hacks already.

For me crypto currency just screams con and Signal including it makes me suspicious regarding the real priorities of those running the show at Signal and whether I can trust Signal moving forward.