Signal adds MobileCoin support in beta release

The privacy-centric messaging app Signal has released a beta version that includes support for MobileCoin (MOB). Signal Payments is currently available only to residents of the United Kingdom.

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://t.co/mwKOCkm8yn pic.twitter.com/XuLtqThQ38

— Signal (@signalapp) April 6, 2021

Signal emphasised that it does not have access to balance data, transaction histories, or the funds themselves. The developers added that assets can be withdrawn to external services at any time.

On March 27, MobileCoin traded around the $7 mark — at the time of writing its price stood at $66.

The MobileCoin team did not focus on media promotion. According to some observers, settlements in the network take 3-5 seconds and could scale to hundreds of millions of users.

Mobilecoin built a private payment system that settles in 3-5 seconds and scales to hundreds of millions of users but they did 0 PR til launch. Even now people don’t get it at all. I just increased our funds position—timestamp this 🙃

— Eric/ (@wheatpond) April 6, 2021

Details of Signal’s cryptocurrency payments testing first emerged in late January. At that time, information surfaced that some staff were unhappy with the crypto integration — in their view, it would attract undue attention from regulators and bad actors.

After changes to WhatsApp terms of use Signal’s user base grew significantly. It was also backed by Elon Musk.

Use Signal

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 7, 2021

In mid-March Signal began accepting donations in cryptocurrency, and it was recently revealed that even Mark Zuckerberg uses Signal. Among leaked data, the founder of the social network’s phone number was found and exposed on Signal.

Mark Zuckerberg respects his own privacy and uses a messenger with end-to-end encryption that is not owned by Facebook.

In 2018, the MobileCoin team raised $30 million. The funding round was led by Binance. Among the project’s founders is Signal’s founder Moxie Marlinspike.

Last May, Pavel Durov announced the closure of Telegram Open Network (TON) amid a clash with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Many in the community had expected Gram to be integrated into Telegram, but those expectations did not materialise.

The Libra project from Facebook and partners also underwent significant changes after regulatory pushback and even underwent a rebranding. It is now called Diem.

Subscribe to ForkLog news on Telegram: ForkLog Feed — the full stream of news, ForkLog — the most important news, infographics and opinions.