Moxie Marlinspike Leaves Encrypted-Messaging App Signal

 

Moxie Marlinspike, co-founder and CEO of encrypted messaging app Signal, has stepped down. After working for more than a decade at Signal, he wrote on his blog that "it's a good time to replace me as CEO."

Signal recently enabled in-app crypto payments, which has worried some users. Marlinspike will continue to serve on the Signal Foundation board, while Executive Board Chairman Brian Acton will serve as interim CEO.

Mr Marlinspike whose real name is Matthew Rosenfeld, said on his blog that he always expected Signal to "grow and catch up" without his involvement. "I wrote all the Android code, all the server code, I was the only person who needed to use the service, I facilitated all the product development, and I managed all of it," he wrote.

Signal - Instant Messaging Apps

Signal is currently used by over 40 million people. The app's popularity grew after some users switched due to a planned change in WhatsApp's privacy policy.

Signal is free, and messages are automatically encrypted by default, just like WhatsApp. Mr. Marlinspike's skills as a programmer and cryptographer have benefited both Signal and WhatsApp.

The signal protocol he created has been integrated into WhatsApp as well as many other popular instant messaging apps.

Signal, which was founded in 2014, has become one of the most powerful and trusted apps for encrypted messaging. The service has over 50 million monthly users and is frequently mentioned in security guidelines.

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The company, which was founded as a non-profit, is not supported by advertising or app sales, but by donations and a recently launched support program.

The app saw a surge in new users in early 2021 as a result of competitor WhatsApp's new privacy policy, but its success was undeniable. Signal employees expressed concern that the company's refusal to enforce content policies could lead to abuse of the service.

'Real-life harms'

In November, the app offered all users to test an integrated payment system based on MobileCoin, a cryptocurrency that is said to be both highly secure and environmentally friendly. Mr Marlinspike is said to have provided technical advice to the crypto startup.

Crypto embedding is a risky strategy, according to some, as it allows criminals to use the app, while also bringing it within the purview of financial laws such as antitrust laws and regulations.

"Adding fake anonymous remittance functions increases their legitimate attack surface, while also creating the potential for harm," said Alex Stamos, former chief security officer of Facebook.

New CEO Of Signal

Mr Acton is Mr Marlinspike's replacement, is also a veteran of the secure-messaging industry. Mr Acton left WhatsApp, which he co-founded, in 2017; The messaging app was sold to Facebook in 2014 for $19 billion (£11.4 billion) in cash and shares. In 2018, he co-founded the Signal Foundation with Mr. Marlinspike, providing $50 million in funding.

Web 3.0

Web3, also known as Web 3.0, has become the latest trend for investors. Hotter than bitcoin, Web3 envisions a more transparent, decentralized and equitable web, which is preferable to an internet dominated by a few large corporations.

The point is that Web3 is not evenly distributed, nor is it particularly equitable or transparent. Despite being marketed as a decentralized alternative to the web, it is highly centralized. The allegation was made by Moxie Marlinspike, a well-known cryptographer and creator of the encrypted messaging app Signal, in a blog post published over the weekend.

To get around the current system, Marlinspike built its own apps for investing in NFTs, and they discovered a small group of companies that users had to rely on to access data stored on the blockchain. 

Marlinspike created the NFT of drawing a geometric line. He shared it on a blog, a popular NFT marketplace that recently raised $300 million, making both of its founders billionaires. His NFT was taken down within days, and more importantly, it had disappeared from his crypto wallet. This is because end-users such as Marlinspike do not have direct access to the blockchain, and some Web3 companies, such as their crypto wallet provider, had to go through some even larger companies to access it.

In his post, Marlinspike provided a few more examples to demonstrate how blockchain services were actually centralizing the flow of data. In other words, the first Web3 applications are already moving towards the structures that underpin the current Web.

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