It looks like Signal isn't as open source as you thought it was anymore

Signal creator is actively against 3rd party clients, because they "use his infrastructure for free":

https://github.com/LibreSignal/LibreSignal/issues/37#issueco...

EDIT: inaccuracies, see below.

Moxie is also using his position as the creator of Signal to promote and integrate his pet cryptocurrency project MobileCoin as a payment provider for Signal, of which he owns a majority stake in.

Technical merits of MobileCoin aside, it's not a good look.

Signal is really not inspiring confidence right now.

EDIT: Sorry, Moxie is only serving as a paid technical advisor to MobileCoin--it is not his project and presumably does not own stake in MobileCoin. So that's better, but remains to be seen what enfolds.

Found a summary of events here if anyone can confirm:

1. MobileCoin premines 250m coins

2. Moxie gets paid for being on their advisory board

3. Moxie directs his non-profit to integrate MobileCoin in secret

4. MobileCoin offers 1/5 of their premine for sale.

5. Signal announcement spikes price to $60

https://twitter.com/lrvick/status/1379536536459431937

Can you provide a source for this...?

The Wired article covering this has a note clarifying that both Moxie and Signal own no MobileCoins, and that he's been a paid advisor to the project.

>Signal's choice of MobileCoin is no surprise for anyone watching the cryptocurrency's development since it launched in late 2017. Marlinspike has served as a paid technical adviser for the project since its inception, and he's worked with Goldbard to design MobileCoin's mechanics with a possible future integration into apps like Signal in mind. (Marlinspike notes, however, that neither he nor Signal own any MobileCoins.)

https://www.wired.com/story/signal-mobilecoin-payments-messa...