What do you thing about Bitcoin as a native payment in Signal app?
453 sats \ 26 comments \ @hynek 26 Oct 2022 bitcoin
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284 sats \ 0 replies \ @Derpitor 26 Oct 2022 freebie
It is increasingly likely that over time, most if not all of these types of payments within apps will be using bitcoin. We are even seeing today that lightning network integration is obsoleting all these tokens and coins that are designed for these apps/networks.
Case in point: Brave browser, you can get BAT tokens for using it, viewing ads etc. However BAT is on eth, has high fees to transfer, and is stored in a kyc'ed custodial wallet. Slice uses lightning integration to do the same value proposition as Brave but for a cheaper asset to send, with more value and kyc free.
With signal, they will push their shitcoin now, but with no liquidity and a decreasing value overtime, they will have no choice but to switch to using lightning payments. This is and will be the way.
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149 sats \ 4 replies \ @chungkingexpress 26 Oct 2022 freebie
I would like to see this. LNTXBOT on Telegram is incredible. I can tip people, do giveaways and all sorts via Lightning. Does anyone know if the Signal team is into BTC? Do they have an app API?
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72 sats \ 3 replies \ @hynek OP 26 Oct 2022
Who is doing the custody for this LNTXBOT?
Here is the message from Signal support: Any cryptocurrency wallets that we include support for also have to work well from within Signal. This would mean:
  1. Integration is “non-custodial”: Signal does not have access to your keys or your funds; that information remains associated with your own wallet.
  2. Like everything else in Signal, data is private: all your data stays in your hands rather than being visible to others.
  3. Transactions are fast: like Venmo, it can only take a few seconds to send a transaction.
  4. Everything works well on mobile: it can’t require downloading and scanning all ongoing transactions in order to find your own.
  5. The experience is simple: in most other ways the experience should be the same as something like Venmo.
  6. It can scale to hundreds of millions of people.
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0 sats \ 2 replies \ @thrown 26 Oct 2022
I don’t think Bitcoin could possibly meet those requirements. How can anyone be mad at Signal for not implementing something that doesn’t meet their needs?
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10 sats \ 1 reply \ @DeezSats 27 Oct 2022
Lightning does
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @thrown 27 Oct 2022
data is private
The only way this would be possible with Lightning is if Signal doesn’t host a node for their users.
And if they don’t do that, then there really isn’t even an integration, is there?
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100 sats \ 0 replies \ @beorange 26 Oct 2022
I think it would be great. Much better than that crap they attempted.
Some sort of lightning wallet would fit the use case very well.
Layer 1 Bitcoin, I'm not sure it would work, since on these cases we need it to be fast and there is always the privacy aspect of it.
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100 sats \ 0 replies \ @zodthebarbarian 26 Oct 2022 freebie
I used to really like Moxie but he clearly sold out for his altcoin for no quality reasons as far as I can tell.
I wouldn't hold out hope for signal, don't get your hopes up there.
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122 sats \ 1 reply \ @sommerfeld 26 Oct 2022
From reading the comments I don't expect anything to change in Signal, they will insist on using their shitcoin.
We keep seeing the same recurring energy and privacy FUD. Let's face it, these people will not be convinced.
I much prefer the approach of bitcoiners building their own tools rather than begging others to change theirs.
Bitcoin community already came up with the likes of keet, impervish and nostr. We will be fine. Others will follow when they no longer have a choice.
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1 sat \ 0 replies \ @cryptocoin 26 Oct 2022
keet, impervish and nostr
This is the way.
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25 sats \ 1 reply \ @Majjin 26 Oct 2022
I would love LN on Signal!
However it seems that it is unlikely to be added right now. I think that Lightning would have to be a bit more mature in their eyes. MobileCoin (the altcoin that Signal uses) would also have to die from lack of usage.
There also seems to be push back from environmentally neurotic yuppies, judging from the comments on the feature request so far.
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5 sats \ 0 replies \ @cryptocoin 26 Oct 2022
MobileCoin (the altcoin that Signal uses) would also have to die from lack of usage.
Yes, I figured that ship has long sailed -- even if some don't like using a cryptocurrency, they like that one better than they would like bitcoin.
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20 sats \ 1 reply \ @ek 26 Oct 2022
Added a comment. Let's see what they say.
I bet they will say he is invested in Bitcoin and thus biased and not to be trusted.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @ek 26 Oct 2022
Okay, I lost my bet, lol
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100 sats \ 0 replies \ @all_SN 26 Oct 2022
Thank you for your attempt to open a discussion. I personally think that the LN approach is the one Signal should have taken, and would love to see it implemented. Fortunately Keet for mobile is coming, and once it does, I will encourage everyone I know to switch over from Signal. I won’t be using single anymore.
Unfortunately it seems people in that community thread have some cringe-worthy misconceptions of environmental impact of Bitcoin, they really should educate themselves on the content and crux of the matter.
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20 sats \ 0 replies \ @Rock 26 Oct 2022
It's a shame that many interacting in that forum thread have swallowed the environmental propaganda. I suppose everyone gets sats at the price they deserve.
Obviously fighting misinformation after it's been blasted out is a losing battle, but what do other stackers think we can do to improve the general cultural acceptance of bitcoin?
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1 sat \ 1 reply \ @joko 26 Oct 2022
I think it might be hard to do in a noncustodial and private way.
Onchain only might be possible, but also not the greatest UX.
By running a chaumian mint I guess they would open themselves up for for legal troubles.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @thrown 26 Oct 2022
And a Lightning node would give them too much user data that they don’t want.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @031b519e5d 29 Oct 2022
I know he's out now but if you want to know his view, this was discussed with moxie before: https://twitter.com/moxie/status/1466520507763757058?t=aZqPvo33St8Fc98Er1LtMw&s=19
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @HardMoney 27 Oct 2022
All the environmental FUD of woke "tech" people can be flipped around with logic fairly easily. Just imagine how much energy video games, data centers, computer parts, phones and everything uses
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Tenuki 26 Oct 2022
I think Moxie is invested in the MC shitcoin so... unlikely
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0 sats \ 3 replies \ @WaraiOtoko 26 Oct 2022
I think they should implement LN-URL. Right now if I go to my Phoenix wallet click on receive, and then share with a Signal contact it just dumps the URL plaintext into a chat message. What should happen is that Signal picks up on that as an LN URL and let the contact open that in their own Lightning wallet. I am not sure what the added benefit is for Signal to implement a fully fledged Lightning wallet.
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0 sats \ 2 replies \ @thrown 26 Oct 2022
I am not sure what the added benefit is for Signal to implement a fully fledged Lightning wallet.
A good UX. If Signal is going to push a crypto experience, they need to educate and guide their users. Otherwise there is frustration, anguish, loss.
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @WaraiOtoko 27 Oct 2022
In an ideal world, yes. But in practice building a good Lightning wallet is at least as hard as building a good chat app. Meaning that Signal probably just doesn't have the resources to implement a full Lightning wallet, and it wouldn't have a good UX. We are not talking about Facebook here, Signal doesn't have a hundred spare devs that they can throw at this.
Personally I think that Signal should aim to have the best chat app there is (which IMHO is the case). Then when it comes to related functionality, such as enabling p2p payments, Signal should integrate with wallets that are the best payments apps there are. The standard to do that would be LN-URL.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @thrown 27 Oct 2022
Well that is why stuff like https://lightningdevkit.org/ exists though.
In any case, you can put a lightning URL in your Signal bio right now. The problem is probably that other people will not follow suite. So it goes back to adoption issues and bad UX not teaching people how it works.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Jasino_Hanzo 11 May 2023 freebie
I wish it was there instead of that crapcoin - like in Fountain or Plebster. I don't know how but +1 on that idea.