Signal under fire over MobileCoin partnership

Controversy surrounds Signal’s recently announced MobileCoin integration, with users expressing concerns over ties between Signal’s founder and the cryptocurrency, opacity surrounding the coin’s issuance, and suspicious gains leading up to the partnership’s announcement. Signal is an encrypted messaging application that has been embraced by the privacy and security-conscious community since launching as Open Whisper Systems in 2013 and rebranding two years later.

MobileCoin was founded in 2017, issuing roughly 15% of its supply to private investors after its entire supply was minted at launch. The messaging app announced it had launched payment functionality through MobileCoin on April 4, with Signal founder Moxie Marlinspike stating it chose MobileCoin due to it requiring little storage space and providing fast transactions without sacrificing privacy on mobile devices.

Signal’s decision to integrate MobileCoin appears to have been made some time ago, with Internet Archive’s Jonah Edwards noting the source code for the cryptocurrency integration was kept private for nearly 12 months before being published to GitHub. With MobileCoin’s MOB token rallying roughly 450% from March 28 until April 3, and news of the Signal integration pushing prices up to $66 as of April 7, some observers are speculating the price may have been affected by investors with advance warning of the announcement.

Individuals are limited to purchases of up to 1,000 Euros daily and 5,000 Euros annually, but businesses that can demonstrate “the need for consumptive paper-to-peer use” of MobileCOin can buy up to 100,000 Euros worth of the token every 12 months. The site makes it clear that MobileCoins are not allowed to be sold or traded with U.S citizens, either through the site, or peer to peer within Signal.

Signal under fire over MobileCoin partnership, Cointelegraph, Apr 9