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Signal adds a payments feature with a privacy-focused cryptocurrency

(www.wired.com)
544 points josh2600 | 6 comments | 06 Apr 21 16:23 UTC | HN request time: 0.87s | source | bottom
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qrbLPHiKpiux ◴[06 Apr 21 17:11 UTC] No.26714509[source]▶
Is your backend open source, or not?

Haven’t seen the git updated in a while.

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brodo ◴[06 Apr 21 17:22 UTC] No.26714686[source]▶
Effectively not anymore. Here is a very recent german article about it: https://www.golem.de/news/crypto-messenger-signal-server-nic...

No updates in the repo for over a year and no answers from the team. The whole crypto currency thing is also a red flag for me. Matrix seems to be the better option by now...

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1. dunefox ◴[06 Apr 21 18:00 UTC] No.26715193[source]▶
If anything, Threema is the best alternative.
replies(1): >>26717890 #
2. pmlnr ◴[06 Apr 21 21:57 UTC] No.26717890[source]▶
No, it really is not. Matrix or XMPP.
replies(2): >>26722801 #>>26723439 #
3. approxim8ion ◴[07 Apr 21 10:26 UTC] No.26722801[source]▶
XMPP has issues on Android and iOS: the app needs to be running and connected to the server at all times to fetch new messages. iOS explicitly disallows this from what I understand, and on Android you are at the mercy of your OEM's battery optimizations unless you specifically keep the app running by pinning it or if the app has persistent notifications. Either way, not something that is easy to explain to normal users, meaning pain points arise very soon.

Matrix is a little more promising, but Element (at least on matrix.org servers) is slow, especially at scale.

replies(1): >>26723193 #
4. Zash ◴[07 Apr 21 11:14 UTC] No.26723193{3}[source]▶
Any chat app would have issues with battery optimizations. Solution is usually to use the mobile OS vendors push notification infrastructure. Work on that in XMPP started around 2015 and most popular clients and servers should have some support by now. It's tricky to make something nice while the platform is working against you tho, especially while those push notification systems use/d XMPP themselves.
5. dunefox ◴[07 Apr 21 11:47 UTC] No.26723439[source]▶
Any reasons why not? It ticks all the boxes for me: https://threema.ch/en/
replies(1): >>26725455 #
6. pmlnr ◴[07 Apr 21 14:28 UTC] No.26725455{3}[source]▶
No self hosting, so not federated/decentralized.