The creators of Signal's secure messenger will open a fund to support the project

Signal developers have always put the principles of protecting personal data and confidentialty first. Thanks to cryptography and open source encryption, the popular messenger is providing users with free and...

Signal developers have always put the principles of protecting personal data and confidentialty first. Thanks to cryptography and open source encryption, the popular messenger is providing users with free and secure communication.

Today, the messenger is used by several million people. But the project has faced difficulties for some time due to lack of funding and human resources. No more than two programmers worked on the project at the same time and the whole team did not exceed 7 people.

The creators of Signal did not want to resort to venture financing, since they consider it unsuitable for a service aimed at ordinary users.

On February 21, Signal announced the launch of the Signal Foundation, a non-profit organization that will raise funding for the project.

Today, we are launching the Signal Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with a mission to develop open source privacy technology that protects free expression and enables secure global communication: https://t.co/ynyYhkHvn0

— Signal (@signalapp) February 21, 2018

Initial funding of $50 million will be required to expand their staff and continue the development of the service. The co-founder of WhatsApp, Bryan Acton, who left Facebook in 2017 because of disagreements with the change in policies of the corporation, has actively participated in the organization of the fund.

Prior to this, Signal was supported by the Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) which continues to accept donations for the development of the messenger service while the application for the Signal Foundation is pending.

Perhaps, after receiving stable funding, the Signal Foundation will create several new applications that will help users protect their privacy while communicating.

Recently, there was a desktop version of the messenger for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Now users can synchronize mobile applications for Android and iPhone with Signal with their PC for more convenient communication.