Signal says it has added support for privacy-focused cryptocurrency MobileCoin to let users send and receive money, starting in the UK on iOS and Android
Testing your first payment — Sending your first payment Bruce Schneier / Schneier on Security : Signal Adds Cryptocurrency Support Stephen Diehl : Et tu, Signal? Liam Tung / ZDNet : Signal messaging app tests out cryptocurrency payments Cryptonews : Signal Turns Into Noise With MobileCoin Integration Oliver Haslam / Redmond Pie : Signal Is Testing Payments That Support Sending Crypto To Friends Josiah Motley / KnowTechie : Signal is working on a way to let people send money privately Furqan Shahid / Wccftech : Signal is Currently Testing a New Cryptocurrency Payment Feature Aditya Chunduru / MediaNama : Signal starts testing privacy-focused payments feature based on cryptocurrencies Nicholas Say / Blockonomi : Signal Adds Payment Feature Powered by Crypto Kimberly Gedeon / Laptop Mag : Signal, a privacy-focused texting app, is now testing crypto payments — but not with Bitcoin Joel Khalili / TechRadar : Signal is getting a crypto-based payments system Ibukun Ogundare / coinspeaker.com : Signal to Launch Payments Feature in Beta with MobileCoin, Available in UK for Now Pranob Mehrotra / XDA Developers : Signal starts testing a privacy-focused payments feature Martin Young / Cointelegraph : Encrypted messaging app Signal enables private payments using MobileCoin Nadeem Sarwar / Pocketnow : Signal is testing a peer-to-peer payments feature, but only for one cryptocurrency Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch : Signal tests payments in the UK using MobileCoin Maggie Tillman / Pocket-lint : Signal tests a payments feature in the UK that supports cryptocurrency Shoshana Wodinsky / Gizmodo : Signal Is Adding a New Privacy-Focused Payments Feature Michael Kan / PCMag : Signal App Tests Letting Users Send Private Payments Via Cryptocurrency Tweets: @signalapp : The latest Signal betas are rolling out today! If you're a beta tester in the UK, you can also help us test payments in Signal: https://signal.org/... https://twitter.com/... @mobilecoin : MobileCoin + Signal, live in the UK today. https://www.wired.com/... Dare Obasanjo / @carnage4life : Very surprised to see a number of techies get upset with Signal for planning to introduce a cryptocurrency. Seeing the same angry & moralistic argument techies make about ad supported services. At some point wonder if people just mad about making money? https://www.stephendiehl.com/ ... https://twitter.com/... Nicholas Weaver / @ncweaver : Translation, Signal isn't integrating just any random shitcoin, it is integrating Moxie Marlinspike's random shitcoin. Gee, what a coinkidink. I wonder how much he's unloaded on suckers already as a result of this pump & dump? https://twitter.com/... Sjors Provoost / @provoost : I'm getting really tired of messenger diaspora life. But if I have to move all my friends to yet another app because Signal is dabbling in shitcoin pump and dumps, I will. https://twitter.com/... Andy Greenberg / @a_greenberg : SIgnal is rolling out payments, adding support for privacy-focused cryptocurrency MobileCoin. (For now in the UK, with ambitions to add to Signal globally.) The goal: a Venmo-like feature that's as surveillance-resistant as the rest of Signal. https://www.wired.com/... Julian Oliver / @julian0liver : Great news. And great, too, that Signal went with a coin that has an extremely low energy transactional footprint ttps://www.mobilecoin.com/ https://twitter.com/... Isis Agora Lovecruft / @isislovecruft : i've worked on signal in the past and consulted on mobilecoin for several years now, and i'm really excited to see this experiment to make private payments simple, efficient, and mainstream https://twitter.com/... Michael Goldstein / @bitstein : With a shitcoin, Signal becomes Noise. https://twitter.com/... Nicholas Weaver / @ncweaver : OK, I hate this: a) Volatile cryptocurrencies are NOT USEFUL FOR PAYMENTS! b) A stable cryptocurrency without privacy protections is NO BETTER THAN EXISTING CHANNELS c) A stable cryptocurrency with privacy protections is AN INVITATION TO CRIME ON A MASSIVE SCALE. https://twitter.com/... Kenn White / @kennwhite : So many mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, big congrats to the Signal team on a clean UX. On the other, there are hard, real systemic issues at play. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/... Martijn Grooten / @martijn_grooten : This is a good thread on why Signal adding integration for a cryptocurrency sounds like a pretty bad idea. Some more details (and quotes from some more concerned people) at Wired https://www.wired.com/... https://twitter.com/... WorldOfHolochain / @holo_of : This won't end well. A pre-mined shitcoin for payments is never a good idea. Adding payments to a privacy/secret chat app invites financial regulatory oversite & will likely see the app banned in many countries. Hosted on AWS giving government legitimate reasons to snoop. https://twitter.com/... @bluespacecanary : Someone sit Moxie down for a serious conversation about what the hell the Signal foundation is doing thanks https://www.theverge.com/... @jackeveritt : I spent the last 2 years basically begging my friends and family to move off WhatsApp to Signal. Signal have f*cked me with this. https://twitter.com/... Tal Be'ery / @talbeerysec : Hi @moxie, how will @signalapp protect its users private key (against both theft and loss)? Maybe take a look at the recent work of @ZenGo @OmerShlomovits turning the Signal network into generic MPC network https://medium.com/... https://twitter.com/... Eric / @wheatpond : I definitely have more bitcoin than 99.99% of the people who are saying signal should have used bitcoin 🤣 i account my entire life in BTC, but it's not for everything and mobilecoin has built the most performant private payment rail on the planet. https://twitter.com/... Enno Lenze / @ennolenze : „Help us test payments in Signal" - Nope. No side channel blockchain voodoo problems in a messenger :/ https://signal.org/... Mcc / @mcclure111 : Not good: This is a cryptocurrency, but they don't immediately disclose that Good: It is apparently not a proof of work cryptocurrency, so it doesn't destroy the earth Not good: Uses Intel SGX, which is a DRM tech and should therefore IMO be illegal https://twitter.com/... @mobilecoin : [0]https://github.com/...... [1]https://community.mobilecoin.foundat ion/ [2]https://mobilecoin.foundation/ [3]https://github.com/... [4]https://github.com/... These are links that might help you to understand what we've made. Peter Todd / @peterktodd : lololol They're actually rolling out Intel SGX coin. “MobileCoin is a payment network with no central authority.” That is a lie. Intel is a central authority if you rely on SGX. https://github.com/... https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/... Eric / @wheatpond : This is the culmination of an incredible amount of work from the team and is a huge moment for crypto. So stoked! https://twitter.com/... @aridavidpaul : I love projects that bring core crypto value like privacy and permissionlessness to a broader population. Tech doesn't change the world without adoption. https://www.wired.com/... (disclosure: long MOB). @wired : Exclusive: A limited number of Signal users can now send money to one another while maintaining their anonymity. https://www.wired.com/... Backchannel / @backchnnl : The encrypted messaging app is integrating support for MobileCoin in a bid to keep up with the features offered by its more mainstream rivals. https://www.wired.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
Signal had been broadening its consumer product with features such as iPad support, ephemeral media, stickers, and reactions in its push beyond a core privacy audience. Adding payments extends that product expansion into money movement while retaining the privacy-centered positioning associated with Signal.
MobileCoin was built for resource-constrained environments and had already raised a $30M crypto-denominated round led by Binance Labs. Signal’s UK rollout gives it a consumer-facing distribution channel; MobileCoin later raised a $66M Series B while being offered through Signal payments.
First-order effects
- UK Signal users on iOS and Android can send and receive MobileCoin within the messaging app, adding a payment action to Signal’s communications product.
- MobileCoin gains distribution through Signal’s user interface, while Signal ties part of its payments experience to a privacy-focused cryptocurrency rather than a conventional payment rail.
Second-order effects
- Signal’s move raises the product bar for privacy-oriented messaging services: adding communication features alone no longer defines the boundary of the app experience when payments can be embedded alongside chats.
- MobileCoin’s value to users and investors becomes more connected to Signal’s adoption and payment usage, concentrating its consumer access around a single messaging partner.
Third-order effects
- If messaging platforms continue to combine private communication with in-app settlement, competition will increasingly center on whether payment systems can preserve the privacy expectations that differentiated the messenger in the first place.
- The rollout illustrates the unresolved trade-off captured by Marlinspike’s defense of centralization for ease of use: mainstream consumer products may seek simple interfaces while attaching themselves to decentralized payment infrastructure.
The trend: Private messaging apps are expanding from encrypted communication into integrated consumer services, with privacy-preserving payment design becoming a key test of that shift.