The founder of WhatsApp is the new CEO of Signal: from direct competitor to replacement of the creator of the privacy-focused messaging app

Brian Acton, co-founder of WhatsApp, is the new CEO of Signal. Matthew Rosenfeld, better known as Moxie Marlinspike, to step down after a decade in office, according to announced Signal’s founder himself.

A sudden change in the leadership of Signal to start the year and what is more surprising, the choice of the founder of what remains one of its main rivals.

Acton’s relationship with Signal started thanks to money from Facebook

Acton left WhatsApp in 2017 and a year later invested $ 50 million to create the Signal Foundation, along with Moxie himself. After becoming a billionaire with the purchase of WhatsApp by Facebook (Meta) in 2014, Acton decided to change the most popular messaging application in the world that he had created with Jan Koum, to bet on an alternative focused on privacy.

“After a decade or more, it’s hard to overstate how important Signal is to me, but now I feel very comfortable replacing myself as CEO based on the team we have, and I also think it’s an important step in expanding Signal’s success.” explains Marlinspike. Brian Acton will serve in the role of interim CEO and a process has been opened to seek a long-term CEO.

Signal was founded in 2015 and has become a messaging tool widely used by activists, journalists and users interested in protecting their privacy. They are currently in the process of implementing a private cryptocurrency called MobileCoin and a P2P payment system for Signal.

This new stage in implementing payments has caused Signal to hire new engineers and evolve to become more than just a private messaging app. A evolution that will almost inevitably attract the attention of regulators, according Signal employees themselves explained to The Verge. Here Brian Acton’s experience with WhatsApp should help.

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