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Use signal.

as soon as it stops requiring phone number as identifier

they did that already. you can sign up with just an account name now, i ditched my phone number from my account after it rolled out around a month ago.

I'm quite sure you still need a phone number to sign up? Afrer that you can hide it but not get rid of it.

Still the fact that you can use it without disclosing your phone number to anyone except signal is indeed useful and a improvement from before.

https://support.signal.org/hc/en-us/articles/6712070553754-P...

Serious question: what should they, or some idealized privacy-first messaging service, use for as a account-id + authentication? I will need some reasonably cost-effective defense against mass abuse.

They could offer usernames tied to a one-time minimum donation, for example, let existing users vouch for new ones etc.

Yes, all more difficult than using phone numbers and outsourcing the proof-of-humanity problem to telcos all over the world, but in my opinion it would be worth it.

Last I checked, Signal doesn't support email...

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