# Signal

Standing (still-up). Founded 2014-07-29.
Site: [signal.org](https://signal.org)

Moxie Marlinspike and Whisper Systems lineage, 2014 as Signal. Still the one you install when you mean it.

## Why it lasted
- The protocol is the gold standard. WhatsApp and others borrowed it. That is a weird kind of win.
- A nonprofit that does one app. The constraint is the pitch.

## Near deaths
- The 2022-2024 'we need a phone number / we need money / we added usernames' cycle. Privacy people are hard to keep.
- It is never going to be WhatsApp. It does not have to be.

## What would finish it
- Protocol remaining while the app becomes a footnote, plus funding that cannot stay donation-and-mobilecoin adjacent forever.

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