Everything on the internet is being corrupted with adding cryptocurrency scams where they absolutely don't belong, it turns Signal from an obvious recommendation into something that makes me hesitate. There's something to be said for focusing on doing one thing well, and that doesn't mean turning a communication platform into a kitchen sink.
A case could be made for it being bloat, but most consumers don't care, and for Signal (or any messaging app) to be successful, it needs to appeal to the common denominator.
And frankly, if this means I can send money to a friend without Google getting yet more data about me, then even better.
Signal providing this functionality is scope creep.
Yet, those features have almost become synonymous with messaging apps. The market and consumers seem to want these services combined, so here we are. My point was that sending money is a feature that more and more messaging services have. Hangouts (or whatever the hell it is called these days), Whatsapp, Telegram, etc.
Personally, I would have liked it more if this wasn't tied to some no-name cryptocurrency, but oh well.
I think those would all be considered in scope for a chat platform--theyre all various ways to share and communicate.