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Comment by ckastner | Hacker News Reader

I'd do this in a heartbeat if they would get rid of MobileCoin first.

That’s partly why I donate. If they get direct funds they’re hopefully less likely to turn to these scammy cryptocoins to keep the lights on

What you don't realise is that they will keep your donation AND their crypto.

That already happened, though.

I'd really, really like to support Signal, but unless they distance themselves from MobileCoin again, I can only assume they are in on it to a certain degree.

I just don't get all the hate for cryptocurrencies around here. I benefit from using both Brave and Signal without being subjected to (scammy) adverts, and I just ignore the cryptocurrencies (you can too!!).. For people who are willing to take the risks with MobileCoin and the like, why not give them that choice?

> why not give them that choice?

That’s fine. But don’t ask me for donations on top. Sending donation dollars to fund developers pumping a coin is a strange use of resources.

> Sending donation dollars to fund developers pumping a coin is a strange use of resources.

Is it? Perhaps those developers will come up with a coin that isn't so scummy? Or come at it from a different direction which satisfies your worries.

If they want investment for that, then they can declare those plans. Otherwise it’s literally just wishful thinking.

What is wrong with using a regulated stablecoin for donations, instead of a unregulated volatile cryptocurrency like MobileCoin that with Signal can be used to privately finance lots of terrorists, extremists and conspiracy theorists chatting amongst themselves in a group chat?

Is that why Signal has not been banned for these uses yet?

I wish so bad that the signal crypto integration would have been done better. They could have implemented a wallet and generated revenue in the hundreds of millions like metamask does.

Starting a new blockchain obviously has founder incentives which are great but it only makes sense when people feel like your contributing to the diversity of blockchains not simply copy pasting monero.

MobileCoin has a lot going for it over Monero. Lower fees (around 1¢) and instant.

afaik they are looking at other options [1]. MobileCoin is a very shady project created only to benefit creators, only 15% of coins in circulation were sold out, the rest is kept by creators [2] Moxie has personal financial interests in MobileCoin [3]:

>A year ago, Platformer was the first to report that Signal was considering adding cryptocurrency payments to the platform, and it started with MobileCoin. Signal CEO Moxie Marlinspike has served as an adviser to the MobileCoin cryptocurrency, which is built on the Stellar blockchain and is designed to make payments as anonymous as cash.

If you're interested in monero in singal check this project https://ccs.getmonero.org/proposals/vd-molly-payments-stage1...

[1] We want payments in Signal to be fast, private, and work well on mobile devices. The first payments protocol we’ve added support for is a privacy focused payments network called MobileCoin, which has its own currency, MOB. https://signal.org/blog/help-us-test-payments-in-signal/

[2] https://messari.io/asset/mobilecoin/profile/launch-and-initi...

[3] https://www.theverge.com/22872133/signal-cryptocurrency-paym...

I'd do this in a heartbeat if they would add Lightning Network donation option.

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