Signal adds a payments feature with a privacy-focused cryptocurrency

I don't think Signal has any plans to scan your driver's license. What they've built is a non-custodial wallet (IE, they can't help you if you lose your keys, and they have no ability to authorize or deny a payment on your behalf).

In my opinion a lot of the spicy regulatory issues around coins with private transactions are still not fully realized because none of them have mainstream adoption. The problem here is that Signal's goal to succeed as a mainstream encrypted messaging client could have the unpleasant side effect of bringing this technology under regulatory scrutiny. Hopefully things won't come to that, of course...

> To try to tame that volatility problem, Marlinspike and Goldbard say they imagine adding a feature in the future that will automatically exchange users' payments in dollars or another more stable currency for MobileCoin only when they make a payment, and then exchange it back on the recipient's side—though it's not yet clear if those trades could be made without leaving a trail that might identify the user.

This would have to involve KYC or harsh limits.

This is probably why they done sell (MobileCoin) to anyone in or from the US...

And they need to exhaustively verify who is really buying these to be sure they really aren’t in the US so they don’t end up in a Bitmex style situation.

The larger problem here for Signal is US legal claims could nuke it off the (very) centralized Apple App Stores and Google Play Store. Then what?