Vitalik Buterin Welcomes Signal's Phone-Free Registration Work

Signal CTO Ehren Kret said in a talk recorded in March that the main reason the app does not yet offer the feature is the need to stop bad actors from mass-creating accounts. "We gotta figure out some way to induce a cost for signing up without a phone number," Kret said. He added that Signal hoped to ship some version of the feature later this year.

Buterin has also been a driving force behind building privacy features directly into the Ethereum mainnet. Those measures target uncensorable private transactions, unlinkable account activity, and private blockchain reads. None of it is live yet. Buterin's Ethereum roadmap tries to stop observers from linking a user's on-chain activity or wallet queries. Signal removing the phone number tackles the same class of problem from a different direction.

In his Aug. 7 post, Buterin said the reduced dependence on phone numbers is the first benefit. He also added a counterpoint about the feature's limits. Kret's March talk suggested Signal is still working out how to prevent spam without a phone number as a gate. The cost for signing up, Kret said, may or may not be monetary.

The commits do not yet confirm a release date. AboutSignal.com said the feature is optional, unconfirmed, and would apply only to new accounts. Kret's earlier timeline pointed to later this year, though no specific date has been set.