Mobilecoin
Mobilecoin
Anybody have any experience with mobilecoin? What is the use case for it? Seems kind of pointless and a lot more tedious than just a bank transfer. Why does signal include crypto nonsense in their app (I like crypto, but just can't see any reason why it should be integrated in the app). I'm sad that signal does not have support for 3rd party open source clients that could remove such features. Why not add support for monero instead?
I'm using the Molly client and don't see any reference to mobilecoin
Mobile coin is a useless fork of Monero. If they had any sense whatsoever, they would have just put a Monero wallet into the app instead of that crap.
I can't take any statements from you about Monero seriously: https://lemm.ee/comment/15410085
MOB is monero in rust with proof of stake. It's a centralized coin, antithetical to federation.... Just like signal.
Right now it's trading at 0.50$, but I'm sure the signal foundation made a bunch of money with the hype and sell off.
I do believe someone honestly thought it was a good idea, central control, revokable, a crypto governments will like... But coming from the signal foundation it shows what their mental model really is.
I did buy some to use, there is no use for it.
I'm skeptical of all cryptocurrency, but in regards to this:
It's a centralized coin, antithetical to federation.... Just like signal.
What is wrong with centralization when a core principle of Signal is privacy? Federation often complicates and confounds efforts to make things more private - look no further than Matrix's Olm implementation. MegOlm also encrypts far less metadata, by design and probably out of necessity.
centralization invites central control and observation...
imagine if talking to the people around you required you calling a central phone depot first before being connected to the person next to you... its not necessarily less secure, but there are more opportunities and the risk surface is greater.
I guess they thought it was more 'private' than a bank transfer
What is the use case for it?
The same use case as any crypto - to use as currency and pay debts.
Seems kind of pointless and a lot more tedious than just a bank transfer.
The same can be said of every crypto which doesn't hit any kind of adoption.
Why does signal include crypto nonsense in their app (I like crypto, but just can’t see any reason why it should be integrated in the app)
It aligns with Signal's mission statement to "Protect free expression and enable secure global communication through open source privacy technology." [1]. The reason it was integrated into the app was to support crypto that was "easy to use". The same way cash provides privacy by not allowing third parties to see what you're doing, they believe(d) that enabling a privacy preserving crypto wallet would further "protect free expression".
I’m sad that signal does not have support for 3rd party open source clients that could remove such features.
It's not not enabled by default and makes up for (based on github commits and pulling a random number out of my ass based on my continue following of Signal's development) less than 1% of development work since it was introduced.
Why not add support for monero instead?
Monero did not meet the technical requirements that the Signal developers were looking for at the time. Signal has commented that they would consider adding other crypto, as long as it meets the technical requirements - which I don't have so can't source unfortunately.
This is the most important thing I know about it, from an article that was first published in 2021, and last seen earlier this year.
Signal Founder May Have Been More Than a Tech Adviser to MobileCoin
Signal recently launched a beta integration of MobileCoin (MOB) for payments. Its price has jumped from $7 to over $55 in the past month, giving it a market cap of $13.75 billion.
Signal founder Moxie Marlinspike, whom MobileCoin previously described as a technical adviser, may have been more deeply involved in the cryptocurrency project.
An earlier, nearly identical white paper found online, which MobileCoin CEO Joshua Goldbard called "erroneous," lists Marlinspike as the project's original CTO.