Today, let's talk about a little-discussed story that I worry could someday have big implications: the encrypted messaging app Signal's introduction of anonymous cryptocurrency payments, and the opportunity it could create for regulators around the world who have been looking for an excuse to eliminate end-to-end encryption altogether.

A year ago, Platformer was the first to report that Signal was considering adding cryptocurrency payments to the platform, and it started with MobileCoin. Signal CEO Moxie Marlinspike has served as an adviser to the MobileCoin cryptocurrency, which is built on the Stellar blockchain and is designed to make payments as anonymous as cash. As Wired described it in 2017, "the idea of MobileCoin is to build a system that hides everything from everyone."