Signal, the encrypted communications app, recently announced that it is working on introducing a new payment feature in beta for the users in the UK. signal mobilecoin ios androidgreenbergwired. The company is testing the integration with a relatively new, privacy-focused cryptocurrency known as MobileCoin. The testing phase has been underway since mid-November.
In the same month, Signal made the same feature accessible to all of the users without fanfare. The feature offers the ability to send digital payments with greater privacy than that of a credit card transaction or even a Bitcoin transfer. Josh Goldbard, the founder of MobileCoin confirmed that as the feature rolled out, massive adoption of the cryptocurrency was spurred. It is now witnessing thousands of daily transactions as compared to just dozens before the global beta release.
Moxie Marlinspike, the creator of Signal, has argued that monetary privacy requires integration with a cryptocurrency rather than the conventional banking and credit card systems. According to him, MobileCoin has designed the payment system to be both easier to use for small purchases on a mobile device, along with fast transaction confirmations. Not just this, it is far more private than the public blockchain that allows powerful forms of tracking. For this, MobileCoin deploys techniques that have been pioneered in older privacy coins that include names like Zcash and Monero. It even uses a form of mathematical proof which is known as Bulletproofs. This guarantees that a transaction has occurred without revealing the amount.
It has been promised that buying and selling MobileCoin in the US is about to get easier. This is because, MobileCoin has signed agreements in with both cryptocurrency payment processor Zero Hash as well as cryptocurrency trading platform SFOX. The agreement will allow Americans to buy and sell MobileCoin in the first three months of the current year.