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

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242 points raybb | 3 comments | 06 Apr 21 18:04 UTC | HN request time: 0.603s | source
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sim_card_map ◴[06 Apr 21 20:45 UTC] No.26717173[source]▶
Signal creator is actively against 3rd party clients, because they "use his infrastructure for free":

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

replies(1): >>26717681 #
stevenhuang ◴[06 Apr 21 21:36 UTC] No.26717681[source]▶
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

replies(2): >>26717751 #>>26718028 #
Klonoar ◴[06 Apr 21 22:15 UTC] No.26718028[source]▶
Two things, I think:

3) The "turmoil in Signal" article that made the rounds a few months ago had mentions of the MobileCoin work; I don't think is news so much as people weren't really paying attention.

5) The price spike, to my knowledge, was (partly) some whale at play. This is not a rebuttal to your point as I don't think anybody could prove this for sure tho, but mostly throwing it here for context.

replies(1): >>26718871 #
pseudalopex ◴[06 Apr 21 23:58 UTC] No.26718871[source]▶
The article came out 9 months into a 12 month process. And expecting everyone to see every article about every app they use is unrealistic.
replies(1): >>26719804 #
Klonoar ◴[07 Apr 21 02:08 UTC] No.26719804[source]▶
>And expecting everyone to see every article about every app they use is unrealistic.

The article was posted here with significant discussion, so no, I feel fine assuming that readers of this forum (and certainly with respect to this topic) have a likelihood of having seen it.

replies(1): >>26720076 #
1. pseudalopex ◴[07 Apr 21 02:53 UTC] No.26720076[source]▶
You overestimate how consistently and thoroughly people read HN.
replies(1): >>26720163 #
2. Klonoar ◴[07 Apr 21 03:07 UTC] No.26720163[source]▶
Sure.

But that's better than having multiple commenters across these threads show you links indicating that this wasn't a grand secret, which you just disregard because it doesn't fit a narrative.

shrug

replies(1): >>26720672 #
3. pseudalopex ◴[07 Apr 21 04:41 UTC] No.26720672[source]▶
The article you keep talking about[1] and the articles the other person linked[2] don't indicate what you claim they do.

The article you keep talking about relied on leaks. Marlinspike dismissed the MobileCoin work as "design explorations" less than 3 months ago. They stopped publishing the server source just before they started working on payments. They started again just after announcing it.

Someone who read the right article 3 years ago might have predicted this would happen some day. That doesn't change Marlinspike tried to hide they were actually working on it in 2020 and 2021.

[1] https://www.platformer.news/p/-the-battle-inside-signal

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26718488