Integrate Incognito into Signal (PoC)

Hello,

I am pretty sure you came across @andrey 's article Integrate Incognito into Signal.

After a late night voice message session in Signal between my valued friend @sato and me, I picked up this task.

Additional credits go to @andrey as I take his brief description to shortly write my proposal. Because we’re in time pressure, check my schedule below.

What privacy problem are you solving?

We would like to make Incognito a default privacy wallet in the Signal app.

  1. There are some talks that Signal core team considers bringing blockchain payment into the app. It’s going to be a huge advantage compared to Telegram.
  2. Having its own privacy blockchain for Signal it might be a huge distraction for the core team. Also, most of the users want to hold and transfer Bitcoin, Ethereum, instead of converting it into a new coin
  3. The same time doesn’t make sense to integrate public Bitcoin or Ethereum, coz after the first transaction user’s entire history is exposed.
  4. With Incognito, Signal’s users will be able to store, transfer, swap Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc with full anonymity, within their favorite app.

I believe that the synergy of p2p messaging with p2p finances will bring privacy to a new level. It’s a huge step towards freedom in the digital age.

Credits to @andrey - I totally agree here, I cannot say it better

What is the solution?

In our opinion, Signal is one of the best privacy messengers and Incognito is one of the best privacy wallets.

I move this process forward by building a proof of concept (PoC) as suggested by @andrey.

I will build the basic functionality of the Incognito wallet eg. private key generation, send and receive into a fork of the Signal iOS app. In addition I will do this with all my UI/UX knowledge.

I closely work together with the Incognito community as well with @andrey.

Who are you?

My name is Andreas Reuter. I am a freelance iOS, React+Node developer with 11+ years of experience in software development. I finished my education in 2008, Germany and worked for well-known companies in multicultural teams.

Why do you care?

iOS app development is my daily business. I recently joined the Incognito community because of their passion to build privacy around crypto. To be honest, I love challenges.

What’s your plan? What’s your schedule?

Ship Date Deliverable
Nov 18, 2020 UI screen designs
Nov 25, 2020 Ready to use PoC fork of Signal that includes the most important functionality of the Incognito wallet as describe above

Is there an existing conversation around this idea?

Yes, you can read @andrey 's article here.

Is there anything else you would like the community to know?

I will share some progress with you eg. UI designs, ideas, problems etc.

UI screen designs

You can find the UI designs under this link: https://scene.zeplin.io/project/5fb48ac519df1e7f35c99962

Open source code

Actual code base available as a reusable toolkit in Apple’s Framework style.

You’ll find the IncognitoPayKit documentation.

Signal app is a monster in sense of build time. I build this Incognito Pay sample.

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@andireuter Really looking forward for your Incognito Signal integration. One step closer to the privacy crypto mass adoption :smiley::+1:

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Hey @andireuter it’s awesome initiative! Welcome to Incognito builders!
And looking forward to see Incognito wallet in Signal!

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This will be awesome and can’t wait for it to go live!

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The more I read the builder section the more I read great ideas! It is good to be part of this beautiful project!

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I feel the same way! :smiley:

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Thank you for the kind words! Happy to have you here with the community! :muscle: :black_circle:

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I like the UI screen designs Andreas! Definetly a big and very important step for the Incognitochain :clap: I’m looking forward to use the signal payment method! :dizzy:

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Hello @Nubex thanks for your feedback!

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UI designs look neat! :+1:
Will you have any plan for dark mode? (sorry I’m a fan of dark mode :black_heart: :joy:)

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Yes, I do have 2 iPhones with me to develop in parallel white and dark. To be honest I prefer dark mode as well. :raised_hands:

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Probably people don’t get notified when I edit the article. Check out the designs. They aren’t finished at all. But they should give you an idea how “Incognito Pay” will look.

Btw. I like the idea of “Incognito Pay”. In my opinion more people understand that they can pay their friends. As well it gives space for more features eg. Exchange, Crypto Pools like Money Pools etc. :smiley:

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Hey guys. Can you tell me your favourite way to get the PoC onto your iPhone?

  • Build and run from GitHub sources
  • Install via Apple TestFlight, non anonymous

0 voters

Is it only for iOs at the moment?

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Yes, it is. But Signal must accept our PoC to become released in their app first. Before that we don’t make further plannings.

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@andireuter I vote for the TeestFlight option. We will use it to present Incognito to the Signal community, so it should be as accessible easy to use as possible.

The main goal is not to have an alternative signal app but bring your build to the signal core app.

yep, better to duplicate update in comments, so everyone can notice it )

There are couple of devs approached me with the idea of building Android version. Hopefully we will see more builders soon :slight_smile:

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Hi @andrey
Hi @Katoshicoins

Thanks for your replies. If Signal approves our feature I can ask my employee to build an Android version.

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Good, I would also vote for TestFlight because of this reason. :raised_hands:

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As you probably noticed I edited my post to make my code base public. I currently build things. Stay tuned. :construction_worker_man: :construction:

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Hi all.
Have a look of the current progress.

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