Signal’s cryptocurrency Wallet can help you send money to other Signal users via its Mobilecoin cryptocurrency. Signal users worldwide can now send and receive crypto payments right through the app, as reported by Wired.
Accessing your wallet is very simple aswell. Just tap your profile picture and select “Payments. To add money tap on “Add Funds,” and the app will give you your crypto wallet address. Here you can send MobileCoin. It’s still listed as being in beta, but it should be appearing for everyone.
Signal’s cryptocurrency Wallet
Currently, you can fund your account with a single cryptocurrency called “Mobilecoin“. The app’s choice of using MobileCoin instead of fiat currency or even a more popular crypto asset is to keep your privacy secure and is the prime reason for Signal’s approach to privacy.
But this approach to P2P payments has a few issues that might complicate its adoption. For example, you can’t load your money on Signal through a regular payment processor. Instead, to get funds in and out of the app, you’ll have to buy/sell the cryptocurrency, and it’s only available on smaller exchanges like BitFinex.
MobileCoin founder Josh Goldbard confirmed the timing of the rollout. And said that the Signal adoption of the cryptocurrency improved its market share. Which now sees thousands of daily transactions versus just dozens before the global beta release.
MobileCoin deploys techniques that have been pioneered in older “privacy coins” such as Monero and Zcash. These include a protocol called CryptoNote and a feature called Ring Confidential Transactions, which hides the number of payments and makes them hard to trace by mixing them up.