The CEO of the encrypted chat app Signal leaves: The WhatsApp co-founder takes over

On January 11, it was reported that Moxie Marlinspike, CEO of crypto chat software Signal, had stepped down and would be temporarily replaced by WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton.

It is worth mentioning that the reason why Signal quickly became popular last year is precisely because WhatsApp's privacy policy caused user dissatisfaction.

In a blog post on Monday, Marinspec said that after 10 years as CEO, he believes it's time to step down, adding that "it's an important step to make Signal more successful."

Marins Parker will remain a director of Signal. Akton, who co-founded WhatsApp in 2009, has "volunteered" to serve as interim CEO so the company continues to look for a full successor to Marins Parker.

Signal provides end-to-end encrypted messages that cannot be intercepted externally. Therefore, it has long been favored by users who pay attention to privacy.

The main appeal of the service came into widespread attention in early 2021, especially after WhatsApp revised its privacy policy to allow the sharing of payment and transaction data with its parent company, Meta (formerly Facebook). The app was boosted by publicity from Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

"Signal's usage and popularity around the world is growing faster than I thought." "I was blown away by signal's limitless potential, and I wanted someone with fresh energy and a willingness to dedicate to it to reach its full potential," Marinspik said. ”

Signal recently decided to integrate an untraceable privacy coin to facilitate anonymous P2P payments. But there are concerns that the move could attract illegal activity into the platform and trigger regulatory scrutiny.

Akton will temporarily take over Marins Pike's role in the coming month. He sold WhatsApp to Facebook in 2014 at a valuation of $22 billion. In 2018, due to tensions with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg over user privacy and WhatsApp's lack of independence, Eckton chose to leave.

Since then, Axton has been criticizing Facebook, a sprawling social media platform, and hashtag #deletefacebook during the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

Akton co-founded the Signal Foundation with Marins Pike, a nonprofit organization focused on developing "open source privacy technologies" in communications, to which the Signal Chat App is part.