Could somebody point me to what's going on with Signal?
Signal has decided to integrate a new cryptocurrency that focuses on privacy.
Moxie (the author of Signal) is invested in the cryptocurrency company, so the optics are bad.
And there are people who never liked him/Signal anyway because it doesn't federate and he's not in favor of reproducible builds.
The more nuanced part is that adding financial transactions could be very useful. Money is useful to move around.
But moving money invites more govt scrutiny to Signal as a platform.
Alternatively, fedi and free software circles is the bubble and the world outside is ecstatic at finally getting user-friendly Moxie-approved anonymous transactions.
I don't agree. The challenge is more what the goal of Signal is.
Is it just messaging, or is he trying to feature compete with the proprietary world, where payment via messenger is common.
I also think the people in Free Software who don't like Signal at all are ignoring how popular it is. It's a huge success story for crypto and for a massively scaled project.
I disagree with this move, but only because of the legal scrutiny it will bring onto Signal.
@emacsen @clacke @gabek I literally had no idea that proprietary messengers have money transfer features until now. Copying what they do for its own sake seems very misguided IMO. I can't say I've ever even considered that a communication application should have anything to do with transferring currency.
@emacsen @gabek The part about reproducible builds is incorrect. https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android/tree/master/reproducible-builds
@gabek
My take...
Currency is complex. I have a lot of thoughts on it, many of which are too nuanced for 500 characters, but I think transferring units of work is very important. Working with/on Spritely taught me that.
At the same time, when you move from fiat currency to govt backed currency, things get complicated.
And I have strong aversion the whole cryptocurrency as an investment thing.
So why shine such a bright light on Signal when it's so fragile to begin with.