MobileCoin (MOB) is a cryptocurrency designed to be used as digital cash on your phone. MobileCoin aims to make cryptocurrency transactions quick and easy for everyone, while still preserving privacy and decentralization. After MOB hit its ATH price of $70 many investors started to ask questions if the project is worth it and where to buy MOB. Let’s review the MobileCoin project with its pros and cons.
Mobile Coin project and its cryptocurrency MOB is worth watching, moreover after the tight partnership with Signal app. The creator of Signal, Moxie Marlinspike creates a very high expectation of the Mobile Coin platform. His mission is to overcome the standard limitation of blockchain scalability and bring fast and secure transactions to our hands.
Unfortunately, bitcoin couldn’t deliver crypto transactions into our everyday life in more than 10 years (but it is still the greatest investment opportunity in a decade though). Mobile Coin is pushing hard and to tell the truth, the future looks very promising.
What is Mobile Coin
MobileCoin was founded in 2018, while the whitepaper was published in December 2017. According to SEC filing, the company Mobile Coin Inc. is based in San Francisco, California with the jurisdiction of Delaware. The project aimed at providing fast and easy payments to mobile.
Mobile Coin went live in December 2020
Features
- Easy wallet recovery
- Fast transactions
- Privacy
- User-friendly and planet-friendly
MobileCoin MBCC is not MobileCoin MOB
If you are in the crypto space for a longer time, you might know an ICO project called MobileCoin with a ticker MBCC. It launched in late 2017 but as nowadays the project is not live and the website https://www.mbccoin.co is down.
The majority of websites introducing new ICOs distinguished MBCC from MOB, but we can find some copy – past text somewhere. So don’t be confused if you find mixed information about MBCC and MOB.
During our research, we think that those two projects have a different background and are not connected.
How Does Mobile Coin work
A payments network called MobileCoin has its own currency, MOB.
The project uses Stellar Consensus Protocol to record its transactions and is aiming to create an end-to-end encrypted messaging platform like WhatsApp and Signal – two apps that use Marlinspike-developed Signal protocol. Stellar Consensus Protocol used in the Mobile Coin project uses the federated byzantine agreement model (proof of reputation) instead of proof-of-work.
The Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP) is not the same as a Stellar network. The Stellar network runs on a separate implementation of SCP.
They use Stellar blockchain because it is faster and more efficient than its predecessors.
MobileCoin is designed so that a mobile messaging application like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, or Signal could integrate with a MobileCoin wallet.
Usability is one of the biggest challenges today with all cryptocurrency projects.
“The innovations I want to see are ones that make cryptocurrency deployable in normal environments, without sacrificing the properties that distinguish cryptocurrency from existing payment mechanisms,” said Marlinspike.
On the Stellar Consensus Protocol, the nodes don’t need to store a full transaction history in the blockchain; they can discard most data after each payment is completed. These components make MobileCoin more resistant to surveillance, whether it’s coming from a government or a criminal who wants to track and extort users.
Investors
Mobile Coin Inc. raised $29.7 million from investors and with this amount filled the SEC filling. The leading company was Binance Labs, a blockchain startup incubator associated with the cryptocurrency exchange Binance.
“As one of the market leaders in the space, our mission at Binance Labs is to help advance blockchain technologies and grow our collective crypto ecosystem. A mobile-first, user-friendly cryptocurrency, like MobileCoin, plays a critical role in driving mainstream cryptocurrency adoption. The MobileCoin team and Binance Labs share a common vision and we are proud to be a supporter of what they are doing.” said a Binance representative.
The Series A investment round was backed by Future Ventures and General Catalyst. Mobile Coin raised $11.35 million in fresh venture funding.
Team
You can check the current team of MobileCoin on LinkedIn.
Joshua Goldbard, CEO
Working in Telecom for much of his adult life, Joshua developed, managed, and implemented networks of significant complexity. His expertise on mobile systems as well as his passion for cryptocurrency as an information network governing systems of value help him lead this project.
Moxie Marlinspike, CTO
Moxie is a cryptographer with a passion for secure communications. As the lead developer of Open Whisper Systems, Moxie is responsible for the entirety of Signal, and the cryptographic protocols governing Whatsapp.
Shane Glynn – General Counsel
Shane is a lawyer with a passion for adrenaline and logical consistency. In his work at Google, Shane has helped bring many products to life including those from the Android teams. He is now responsible to ensure MobileCoin’s compliance with crypto regulations.
Advisors
- Li Xiaolai
- Eric Meltzer
- Dax Hansen
- Todd Huffman
MobileCoin token (MOB)
Max Supply: 250M MOB
How to buy MobileCoin (MOB)
You can buy MobileCoin on crypto exchange FTX. It has the highest volume, actually 96% of all trading activity across all exchanges. MOB is a new token that hasn’t been listed on many exchanges. That might be a huge opportunity for you if you are willing to trade somewhere else than Binance.
Get a 5% fee discount when you register on FTX exchange via our affiliate link.
Exchanges
The top exchanges for trading in Mobile Coin (MOB) are currently:
- FTX Exchange (recommended, highest trading volume, fair exchange rates)
- Bitfinex
- BigONE
- HotBit
MobileCoin trading pairs:
- MOB/USD
- MOB/USDT
- MOB/BTC
MobileCoin on Binance
MobileCoin is not listed on Binance, at the time of writing this review (7th April 2021). There hasn’t been an official announcement if Binance will list MOB any time in the future.
Due to the association with Binance Labs, we can assume that Mobile Coin will be listed on Binance someday. The process should be much easier because Binance Labs invested in Mobile Coin as an early investor and lead the following crowdfunding round.
Mobile Coin Price
Mobile Coin price was around $2 in 2020. By 2021 we could see a 100% increase to the $4 range.
The 28th March of 2021 was a significant day for MOB because its price went rapidly up to $18. You could buy MOB for $39 at the end of March. The price dropped to $31 afterward but the bulls continued strong.
The current all-time high of MOB was on 6th April 2021 when the price hit almost $70.
The next day, on 7th April 2021 the whole crypto market went down due to the Bitcoin price bear day trend and MOB fell to $33.
FTX is the current most active market trading it.
Get a 5% fee discount when you register on FTX exchange via our affiliate link.
Mobile Coin Future with Signal App
The Signal app chose Mobile Coin instead of Monero or Zcash because MOB is designed for mobile devices. Smartphones cannot store a lot of data and the blockchain transactions, storing, and sending information has to be done differently.
In April 2021, encrypted messaging app Signal has begun testing a payments feature that allows users to send cryptocurrency to other users privately. This beta feature is available only in the United Kingdom so far.
We want payments in Signal to be fast, private, and work well on mobile devices. The first payments protocol we’ve added support for is a privacy-focused payments network called MobileCoin, which has its own currency, MOB. – Singal official announcement
The Signal app does not have access to your balance, full transaction history, or funds.
Also, you can transfer your funds (Mobile Coin) at any time if you want to switch to another app or service. There is a high probability that Mobile Coin will be implemented in other messaging apps.
If Mobile Coin becomes a way to transact over Signal, it could be a deal-breaker for using cryptocurrency in our everyday life without even thinking about blockchain, seed, or a wallet.
The Signal app is not yet as popular as Telegram, but it might get there soon because of its strong advocates such as Edward Snowden or Elon Musk. Both of them highly recommend using Signal for messaging.
The Signal app does not generate any revenue from the application, instead of relying on donations to continue development. In 2018, it received $600,000 in donations but spent $4 million on staffing and infrastructure. WhatsApp co-founder Brian Actor provided Signal with a $105 million zero-interest loan in 2018.
Signal has never disclosed the real number of its user base, but according to some sources we estimate that the platform has around 40 million users (January 2021). Compare with its messaging competitors, Telegram has more than 500 million users and WhatsApp has more than 2000 million users.
The Historical Problem with Regulators
Cryptocurrencies and messaging apps haven’t historically mixed together very well due to regulatory issues. Kik messaging app created a digital currency called Kik and from that moment fought heavily a couple of years with SEC.
MobileCoin, unlike Kin token, is backed by venture capitalists and not via ICO (initial coin offering) which was a death sentence for Kin token.
Telegram shut down its own project for a digital currency in 2020 after few years of battling with regulators. Telegram Open Network (TON) supposed to issue a cryptocurrency called GRAM for Telegram users allowing them the fast and secure transfer of money or payments.
The hardest regulation seems to be in US and Signal might avoid the US market with the functionality of transferring Mobile Coin.
There is already a notice that the MobileCoin Wallet is not available for download or use by U.S. persons or entities, persons or entities located in the U.S., or persons or entities in other prohibited jurisdictions.
Mobile Coin Official Channels
Website: https://www.mobilecoin.com/
Additional website: https://buymobilecoin.com/ (not actively using)
Medium: https://medium.com/mobilecoin
Whitepaper (2017): https://mixin.one/assets/MobileCoin-Whitepaper-EN_FINAL.pdf
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mobilecoin
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MobileCoinOfficial/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLbU8GN6C8tHzGZ_b53LuNg/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mobilecoin/
Github: https://github.com/mobilecoinfoundation/mobilecoin
Verdict: Should You Buy MobileCoin (MOB)?
It seems inevitable that cryptocurrencies will eventually replace physical money.
The project of Mobile Coin gives hope to all of us that believed in cryptocurrency. Physical money and money printed by the government aren’t here forever and the time when they will be replaced is coming soon. Cryptocurrencies are the next money.
There are still plenty of questions to be answered, including one big one: whether MobileCoin will be able to deliver its promise for fast and secure transferring money. Will users like paying with MOB via messaging apps. Using currency is the main point of the money, so unless people won’t be using cryptocurrency as a payment, it can’t spread around.
It all started with buying a pizza for one bitcoin. The next step is just around the corner. So far it looks that Mobile Coin is creating our better crypto future and the Signal app will be the messenger of it.
Pros
- Niche-focused cryptocurrency with a use-case.
- Strong partnerships with Signal app (whose advocate is Edward Snowden).
- No media hyping.
- MOB hasn’t been listed on major cryptocurrency exchanges. There is still a good time to enter the trade for retail investors. We think that Binance listing might happen in 2021.
- Signal implementation is in beta testing in the United Kingdom.
Cons
- The official website has just the minimum information. Investors cannot proceed with deep research.
- No official link to the whitepaper. We had to google it via keywords.
- Similar projects had quite a big regulatory problem with SEC.
- There isn’t any official introduction video. YouTube channel has only two videos (11 and 9 months old).
- High volatility. A short squeeze already happened and might happen in the future as well.
Disclaimer
Risk warning: Cryptocurrency trading is subject to high market risk. Please make your trades cautiously. Binance will make the best efforts to choose high-quality coins, but will not be responsible for your trading losses.
DYOR: Do your own research
