Tech

Signal’s crypto feature is already popular all over the world


In the spring In 2021, encrypted communications app Signal announced that it will added a payment feature in beta for its users in the UK, is testing integration with a relatively new, privacy-focused cryptocurrency called MobileCoin. But a broader phase of that testing has been quietly underway since mid-November. That’s when Signal made the same feature accessible to all of its users without fanfare, offers the ability to send digital payments much more privately than credit card transactions — or Bitcoin transfers — to millions of phones.

The founder of MobileCoin, Josh Goldbard, confirmed the timing of the rollout and said that it has spurred massive adoption of the cryptocurrency, which now has thousands of daily transactions compared to just dozens before the full beta release. bridge. “There are now over a hundred million devices on planet Earth that have the ability to enable MobileCoin and send an end-to-end encrypted payment in 5 seconds or less,” Goldbard said, referencing the Signal’s report total downloads.

In fact, getting started with Signal’s payment feature isn’t all that simple. Anyone outside of sanctioned companies like North Korea and Syria can access their MobileCoin wallet in a message by tapping on the “+” icon and then on “pay.” But the challenge for many will be to top up that wallet in the first place; The cryptocurrency is only listed for sale on a handful of smaller crypto exchanges — such as BitFinex and FTX — none of which are yet available to US consumers.

Signal itself did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment on the global rollout of the payments feature. But last April, signal creator Moxie Marlinspike explained to WIRED that he wants to add payments to the encrypted video calling and messaging app to match the features of rivals like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger — while bringing in the privacy protections Signal’s welcome for currency transactions. “I want to go to a world that not only you can feel [a sense of privacy] when you talk to your therapist over Signal, but also when you pay your therapist for a therapy session via Signal,” Marlinspike said at the time.

Marlinspike has argued that this kind of monetary security requires integration with cryptocurrencies rather than traditional, supervisory-friendly credit card and banking systems. In 2017, Marlinspike helped launch MobileCoin with that potential integration, acting as a paid technical advisor for the cryptocurrency. He and Goldbard say they designed MobileCoin to be both easier to use for small mobile purchases, with quick confirmation of transactions, and also to be much more private than Bitcoin, has a public blockchain that can enable powerful forms of tracking.

To avoid blockchain-based user financial tracing, MobileCoin implements techniques that were pioneered in older “privacy coins”, such as Monero and Zcash. These include a protocol called CryptoNote and a feature called Ring Secure Transactions, which hide payment amounts and make them difficult to track by mixing them together. MobileCoin also uses a form of mathematical proof called Bulletproofs that can guarantee a transaction has occurred without revealing its value. “I don’t think it makes sense to send transactions over a ledger where all actions can be linked,” Goldbard said of Bitcoin’s less private blockchain. “There are so many different ways this can matter. If I pay the bill, my bartender now knows that I just paid a therapist or I went to the doctor. Every transaction I make. done with that wallet now my barista will be visible. forever.”

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