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by leonhandreke 3858 days ago
Why incentivize spamming my friends with links before I've even seen the app, only to refer them to a waiting line? Sure, launch day momentum and all that, but I wish that as an entity that wants to be "the good guys", they can find a way to gain a broader audience for their app based on the app itself, not the buzz around it.

On a sidenote, does anyone know who funds their full-timers? https://whispersystems.org/workworkwork/ says they're not VC funded. But then who pays them?
2 comments
frayesto 3858 days ago
They are part of the [Freedom of the Press foundation](https://freedom.press/) and have grants from the Shuttleworth foundation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Whisper_Systems#Funding

http://www.knightfoundation.org/grants/201499909/

https://www.shuttleworthfoundation.org/fellows/moxie-marlins...

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guelo 3858 days ago
The buzz about a chat app is more important than the app itself. The usefulness of the app is proportional to the size of the social network. The most difficult thing to build and the most valuable part of a chat app is the social network. WhatsApp wasn't worth $19 billion because of the quality of the software.

Buzz, marketing, promotion, virality, user aquisition in general, are the most important thing for Signal to be working on.

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