Vitalik Buterin applauds Signal's shift to phone-number‑free accounts

Ethereum co‑founder Vitalik Buterin publicly praised Signal’s effort to allow new users to register without providing a phone number, calling the move a “very welcome” step for privacy. He highlighted the challenge of preventing Sybil attacks and denial‑of‑service abuse without traditional identifiers, and noted that Signal’s recent code commits separate phone‑linked and phone‑free accounts, limiting the feature to fresh sign‑ups.

Buterin has previously donated 128 ETH each to the Signal Foundation and SimpleX Chat to support open‑account creation and stronger metadata protection. In a recent post on X, he reiterated his belief that control over information equates to power and urged resistance to concentrated data collection. Signal’s CTO Ehren Kret explained that the company is still working on cost‑imposing mechanisms to deter mass account creation before the feature can be fully released later this year.