Bitcoin Forum

Well known privacy messaging app Signal started accepting Bitcoin and other crypto donations.
Many privacy oriented people like Edward Snowden and Jack Dorsey from Twitter are already using Signal and we know they are both supporting Bitcoin as well.

One thing I noticed on their donation page is that you can choose to donate with your full name and address or click the checkbox and donate anonymously, like I would suggest.
This is just one more small step in wider Bitcoin adoption. ;)

https://twitter.com/signalapp/status/1371495831199567872

Good news but what would be the bomb would be for Facebook to announce something similar for Whatsapp, as Saylor recommended. I understand that Signal is a minority app, as I had not heard of it (but I had heard of others like Viber or Telegram).

It was one of the main decision taken by the secret encrypted messenger app Signal which is an NPO and funds would be used for development of Signal Technologies Foundation the company behind the app.The anonymous donation feature is very important part as you can donate without revealing your Indentity.The signal app has top the list of most downloaded apps in both Android and IOS because of security features after Facebook new policies.The signal app was in talks with Binance to test payment features on Mobilecoin.They have now officially announced crypto donations in 13 different currencies including Bitcoin and now it will have affect on share prices of Signal app after this decision.

I'd be surprised if they don't accept anonymous donations tbh. I mean, the app itself is claimed/marketed as a privacy-friendly app, which competes with WhatsApp, etc. Not allowing people to donate while remaining anonymous/protecting their privacy would be a bit weird. After all, they're using crypto and not fiat in this scenario, which means there is no need to involve third-party if they wanted to. No KYC stuff and so on.

Initially Signal was known to be increasingly popular, when there were several WhatsApp policies that had been changed, as there was a growing movement to uninstall WhatsApp in several Asian countries. what we know is that end to end messages on Whatsapp can be easily picked up by third parties. so that this is a good point for Signal to enter and offer a much more secure privacy offer. So it's no wonder when Signal enthusiasts are increasing and continuing to increase significantly. plus the adoption of Bitcoin into the realm of communication tools such as Signal. I believe WhatsApp and Facebook are already overwhelmed seeing this.

Nice initiative. They are nonprofit and need funds to operate. The anonymous payment option is one of the musts in the decentralized world.

There is absolutely no need for Facebook and other big tech companies to hold monopoly and control all digital information and communication, especially with some messaging app.
People don't care about privacy until it's too late and they got personally affected, and Signal is good but it still requires phone number for registration similar like Telegram, and there is one more fork of Signal called Session.
Session app is fully open source, they claim there are no central servers, there is no need for phone numbers during registration, and they should also add Bitcoin donations.

It is impressive to see how many cryptocurrency they accept as donations

https://i.imgur.com/DsbyokI.png

I ask myself if that is really effective. Are people donating Storj, Dai, BAT?

Anyway, it is good to be able to donate really anonymously using cryptocurrencies.

I hope that someone day Signal (or some other message app) will allow us easy bitcoin payments inside its app, putting a mobile wallet inside the app. I know people do something like that in China, using wechat. That would be some cool adoption.

Only bad luck for us ( Bangladeshi). Technology knows the power of technology. That is why signal started to accept crypto. No worries it is just a start more companies coming soon on this platform. Just hope that our government think again and our Bangladesh bank ( bbl). We badly need this technology in our country. We have to use this freely withour afraid anyone like we use other technology. It is a high time to thought about this. Wish one day i will creat a topic to share my feelings about that time when Bangladesh bank announced bitcoin is legal anyone can use it now.

Yeah I saw that, and I think they are using third party service called Thegivingblock for donation purposes :)
They work with charities, universities and some nonprofit organisations, and they also help fundraising.
https://www.thegivingblock.com/

Props to them for being against complete surveillance and control and now supporting a decentralized free currency. But if I were to organize this, I'd eliminate the full name option. Is there any advantage to it at all?

I'm not sure when this happened exactly, because a weeks ago when I started using signal app I really enjoyed the app and since they are a non profit organization I wanted to donate some a few bucks as bitcoin to the app but I could find the bitcoin payment option. Today, I checked the app again after you informed us about this feature and I see they did add the option. I believe people will use signal app more than telegram and the other similar apps in the future due to the privacy features.

This is good news and makes perfect sense. Bitcoin and crypto
aligns very well with an app which provides a secure and private
messaging service.


I have been using Signal for about 5 years, it is my default messenger
for my android and I also use it on my Desktop.

Very good news. There are other privacy oriented services out there that already accept Bitcoin donations such as the Tor Project. There are also VPNs and text verification services that accept is for payment. Bitcoin users tend to care about privacy which is why this is a natural fit. I suspect we will see more services joining in and allow users to pay with BTC.

I thought that this app is providing signals for trading which is a little disappointing but not really because there is no reliable trading signal provider. Maybe we can see other apps and projects do the same, what I really want to see is the Teamtrees.org integrate this mode of donation, they already planted 20 million trees and I think that it still going on.

Good news, but as always, among all the goodies of the Signal messenger, there is an article that may be of interest to its fans. https://greatgameindia.com/how-cia-created-signal-messenger-app/
As far as I understand, this messenger is tied to the phone, which, to some extent, refutes its confidentiality.

I don't know if this is coincidence or not, but Reuters (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-tech-signal-idUSKBN2B8094) is reporting that just after Signal announced they are accepting crypto donations they got banned in China, and it can't be used anymore except with VPN.
It was still available in Apple China app, but removed from third-party Android Chinese stores, and I it is probably because they received a lot of media attention in world and Chinese government came in package with that.
Is it possible they are preparing for some new Bitcoin restrictions in China?


Well yes I wrote in some of the previous post that you need phone number for registration (like in Telegram), but you can buy prepaid or burner phone numbers, and there is Session fork app without number registration thing..
Tor was also created by U.S. Government but it is still best tool for privacy, and some even speculate that bitcoin was created in a similar way.

I've never heard of this app before, but it has 40 million active users which is not insignificant. Moreover, this app might actually become huge in the future, as its stable release happened only a month ago! It's consistent with the idea of an app focused on privacy to accept donations in BTC, so I'm not surprised by this choice. But of course, it was still a brave move to start accepting crypto donations because this move can be met with criticism and some troubles from various authorities because ensuring that money laundering isn't masked under donations is not easy when donations are anonymous.

did not expect more but the donation program is very good for the development of the signal app...
In order for the signal app to survive, it really really needs funds and the signal app, which I currently know, doesn't get money from advertising or anything like that. I support 100% of their program.