This post, and how it explains that there's 30 people working there now, made me realize that if I care about signal continuing (and I do, since I really like it, especially that it has a dedicated desktop client), that I should see how it makes money and whether that's sustainable. Turns out it's donations, and now I'm a donor through monthly charges through the mobile app. I actually opted for that specifically because their web site noted that they can't give you a badge in the app if you donate online, and I thought showing the badge would be a good way for other people to see and inquire about, and hopefully realize they can donate too if they care to.
I just hope that moxie's replacement is someone with as strong a reputation for fighting for the principles at stake and the ability to defend them. How many people could have written the Cellebrite blog post? Probably not many. The hidden pressures on Signal staff must be enormous, as likely the the world's single most valuable surveillance target.
I've been a user and evangelizer of Signal (aka TextSecure and even RedPhone when the audio piece was split off as a separate app) for a very long time now. I admire the work that Moxie and the entire team have put in over all these years. Thank you all so much for the great work, whether it be writing blog posts rebutting the "I have nothing to hide" people or implementing open and secure-by-default protocols and apps that put privacy within reach of even the least technically-savvy among us!<p>I hope the next adventure is as fruitful as this one was Moxie. Cheers!
The New Yorker profile of Moxie stuck with me. Worth reading in full: <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/10/26/taking-back-our-privacy" rel="nofollow">https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/10/26/taking-back-ou...</a><p>HN discussion: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24824956" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24824956</a>
The mobile coin pumpup powered by the nonprofit Signal Foundation was weird.<p>They got the coin up to $60 from something like $3.<p>This starts to be another hustle (and with the money folks can make exploiting a nonprofit in this way no surprise really).<p>Normally the nonprofit would own the asset it is improving in this situation or get a BIG cut of the upside for leveraging an asset like the Signal network (just as any crypto coin company would).<p>In this case it all seemed very very shady.<p>My guess is someone wants to cash out somewhere on using the nonprofit to pump things up perhaps? I'd pay attention to what they are doing in the crypto space recently to see if there are any correlated activities
Thank you Moxie for all your hard work, commitment and mission driven leadership to get Signal where it is today. I have many friends and family living across the world and I was able to replace WhatsApp with Signal and got out of FB ecosystem and really enjoying the peace of mind that comes with Signal’s privacy and non-tracking for my communication needs. A big thank you indeed.
This all seems like good stuff, but as someone who used to work with Moxie, I think the obvious should be stated: the only reason for an interim CEO is to move out of the role immediately. He could just as easily have stayed in the role while he hunted for a successor.<p>I'm curious why he wants to vacate post haste, but I'm used to not having my curiosity satisfied when it comes to Moxie. :)
Signal has already changed history in a way. The past few years, as trust in a certain type of ethically challenged tech company has come crashing down it was vitally important to have a tangible example of a working, usable alternative.<p>Important for users, but also important for policy makers and other people in high places that are typically tech-illiterate and may assume that trillion dollar valuation implies TINA (there is no alternative).<p>Moxie and that tiny group of developers @ signal have been granted a moment of extreme leverage and they made great use of it.<p>Godspeed
If you get good value out of Signal and you can afford 5, 10 or 20 bucks a month get that auto-donate signed up. I can't think of a more cost effective way to directly contribute to practical privacy.
Thanks for everything, Moxie!<p>I'm sure you don't remember this story, but I remember years ago (2011?) having a drink with you and Stuart while we were working out of I/O Ventures. I was talking about buying a cheap sail boat and you very calmly told me that the ocean will kill me. That it was always trying to kill me.<p>Anyway, I think about that conversation nearly every time I'm in or on the water and it's definitely kept me alive.
Signal is the purely the best messenger we have so far, I remember OpenWhisper Systems RedPhone and TextSecure and how much it evolved since then. It pushed and helped other messengers to roll e2ee too.<p>PS. On Twitter Moxie mentioned that Usernames and e2ee Statuses are coming soon -- last missing pieces IMO, what a legend, huge respect and thanks for changing the industry Moxie!
I'm still really disappointed he didn't go for a more long term solution, federation:
<a href="https://matrix.org/blog/2020/01/02/on-privacy-versus-freedom" rel="nofollow">https://matrix.org/blog/2020/01/02/on-privacy-versus-freedom</a>
Can someone shed some light on moxie's true identity? Did he change his name at some point and why is there no record of a name change nor does even the topic ever come up online?
I'm a big fan of Moxie. Thanks for all the work you've done to give people a free and secure way of communicating. A truly important cause.<p>Ultra-cynical take: I wonder if there's an element of avoiding conflict-of-interest accusations regarding Mobilecoin.
"a very accomplished and committed leadership team", yet a search for an external CEO, did I read that right?<p>Seems kinda risky to push the reins onto someone new to me. Unless I am missing something?
If anybody is displeased by this news, check out Matrix protocol. Grab yourself a client like Element for it. You can even bridge Signal to Matrix if others don't want to switch.
Thank you to Moxie and the entire team at Signal for building this incredible software and releasing it out in the world! I've been using it since the TextSecure and RedPhone days and moving more and more of friends and family to it ever since.<p>To the HN crowd, please become a sustainer (monthly donations) of Signal through the app. You get a badge that way, which is an opportunity for those you communicate with to learn about becoming a sustainer too.
To host a privacy-first IM platform is really challenging. If they took advantage of the users' privacy (behavior, interests, contacts, etc.), they would make good revenue. But they will not.<p>Then how to make this good thing sustainable is a question. Users would think donation is fair enough. But the fact is a world-class IM platform needs an exceptional engineering workforce. Those people are not just looking for users' donations at will.
I stopped believing in Signal some time ago because of their attempts to avoid taking a side in the moderation issue - their policy is just not clear enough [1, 2, 3]. Moxie advocating that you don't need to trust the servers just worsens it [4].<p>Another thing I don't like about Signal is how they conduct their development, doing everything in their own private repo and just throwing the code at GitHub to say they are open-source and trustable (remember when the server code wasn't updated for months because they were adding the mobilecoin feature ?). The only way you can really discuss some bigger thing is in the beta testing forum posts.<p>I hope the new CEO changes some things.<p>[1] <a href="https://community.signalusers.org/t/reporting-cp-groups/40059" rel="nofollow">https://community.signalusers.org/t/reporting-cp-groups/4005...</a><p>[2] <a href="https://community.signalusers.org/t/could-signal-become-the-new-criminal-network/19283" rel="nofollow">https://community.signalusers.org/t/could-signal-become-the-...</a><p>[3] <a href="https://www.theverge.com/22249391/signal-app-abuse-messaging-employees-violence-misinformation" rel="nofollow">https://www.theverge.com/22249391/signal-app-abuse-messaging...</a><p>[4] <a href="https://twitter.com/moxie/status/1457005910136549379" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/moxie/status/1457005910136549379</a>
> It’s a new year, and I’ve decided it’s a good time to replace myself as the CEO of Signal.<p>Best of luck to them, and to the rest of the team at Signal.<p>No matter how we cut it in these comments, competition to the incumbent(s) is a positive for humanity.
My hope is that maybe with new leadership Signal can finally get export/migration features. There seems to have been a deliberate resistance to adding them.
Thanks a lot moxie. Epitome of "this guy gets it". You don't have to have had scabies to gain my trust as a CEO of a tech company, but it helps.
I wish Moxie sees this, would love to have a conversation and maybe have him work together with our project: <a href="https://community.intercoin.org/t/web3-moxie-signal-telegram-and-why-decentralization-matters" rel="nofollow">https://community.intercoin.org/t/web3-moxie-signal-telegram...</a>