You May Soon Be Able to Send Cryptocurrency to Friends Through Text Message

Trina Stroedecke
Technology Section Editor

At least once a week, we all send money to our friends or family. Whether we send them money through Venmo, or through digital payment, we all need to send and receive money, and it has never been easier than now, in our age of technology. But what if you could send your friends money through cryptocurrency exchange? It may not be as distant in the future as you would think.

Signal Payments, a leading payment processing solution in Canada, is currently working on an encrypted messaging service that will allow you to send cryptocurrency over a text message. Similar to how you send money through Apple or Android Pay, Signal hopes that cryptocurrency payments will be able to be exchanged using an app. The application, called MobileCoin, supports MOB and will allow users to send money in any form they would like, but with a new option- cryptocurrency. Currently, in beta testing, Signal Payments authorizes you to send privacy-focused payments through MOB, as simple as sending or receiving a text message.

As of Tuesday, several hundreds of people have tested the new payment system, and it has been going quite smoothly. While presently Signal’s system is only supporting MOB, they hope in the future to allow other cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin or Ethereum. As of right now, however, Signal is more focused on working out any privacy concerns. Signal’s head of growth and Communication, Jun Harada, states “As always, our goal is to keep your data in your hands rather than ours.” He also states that neither Signal nor MobileCoin has access to your data, balance, transaction history, or trading funds. Once all of the privacy concerns have been ironed out, Signal may begin looking to find another cryptocurrency to introduce into the service.

While beta testing is only available to those who live in the UK for now, its next stop is Canada, and I am sure the US will be involved not too long after that.

Contact Trina at stroedka@shu.edu