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Keybase is now supported by the Stellar Development Foundation

keybase.io

61–70 of 170 posts

Re: Keybase is now supported by the Stellar Development Foundation

#61
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are you disappointed if Keybase includes a wallet or a way to send people Lumens? Can you not just not use it?

I recommended Keybase to people as a security tool. This isn't security. There is no reason for cryptocurrency bullshit to exist in tools I rely upon. There is no reason for cryptocurrency bullshit to exist things that I use in production capacities. It is the pure addition of risk to my operations and my clients' operations and offers nothing to me except a ding to my reputation, because I now look like an asshole b…

I think you are making a TON of assumptions here.

Re: Keybase is now supported by the Stellar Development Foundation

#62
I've stopped recommending keybase since they removed all references to being able to do operations directly with gpg (which is a real shame - it worked incredibly well and was the best example I've ever seen of web/CLI integration). The whole thing is becoming very opaque and startup-y and hey-we're-an-app have-you-downloaded-our-app why-not-app-our-app app-app-app-app... I'm really not a fan of these "minimal" growth-hack-y websites which seem so popular these days.

Re: Keybase is now supported by the Stellar Development Foundation

#64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are you disappointed if Keybase includes a wallet or a way to send people Lumens? Can you not just not use it?

Before integrating a cryptocurrency, the incentive for someone to try and hack my account is "gee, maybe they have interesting encrypted files."

I assume that the incentive already includes “the sorts of files people typically bother encrypting include wallets and private keys”, whether or not the file encryption service itself integrates cryptocurrency directly.

Re: Keybase is now supported by the Stellar Development Foundation

#65

Blog author from Keybase here. Always game for a Hacker News discussion! There's a subtle point I cut from my post for simplicity reasons, but which feels perfect for HN. I've been convinced by Mazières and the Stellar team that the classic "blockchain" works great for native tokens but is extremely dangerous for anything with counterparty redemption. For example, imagine the shitshow after a truly contentious fork,…

I've been convinced by Mazières and the Stellar team As someone who's been in the cryptocurrency space for a long time I can guarantee you got swindled. Countless investors I have seen move to centralized "blockchains" due to buzzword powerpoint presentations and floating_nodes.jpg bootstrap landing pages. This is no different than what current financial institutions do other than a new UI.

Are you saying this after having read up on Stellar[1] in particular or is anything other than "full" decentralization a deal breaker for you?

I think Stellar's model if Internet-style (as in the backbone network infrastructure) organic, federated trust relationships is the most practical and viable approach to decentralization that I have seen.

Organizations decide who to trust based on their relationships with them and individuals decide which organizations to trust for the same reason. That is how trust works in the real world, and for good reason. The problem is that the costs of operating at a global level in the current financial system are very high, which leads to centralized control.

Stellar will potentially allow many different types of new, small and innovative organizations to participate in the same network as larger more traditional institutions, with no restrictions for joining the network. Of course those small organization still have to compete for customers in the real world and the playing field is never fully level, but certainly opens up the game.

I personally just don't see the Utopian, fully-decentralized, f*ck-the-system future that a lot of crytpo-enthusiasts envision. It just doesn't mesh with the reality of how non-technical users operate in the real world. For example, right now the vast majority of US users purchase Bitcoin through Coinbase, because that is who they deem trustworthy. What I do see with Stellar is the possibility for greater innovation and greater individual access to the global payments network.

[1] https://medium.com/a-stellar-journey/on-worldwide-consensus-...

Re: Keybase is now supported by the Stellar Development Foundation

#66
post #51

Blog author from Keybase here. Always game for a Hacker News discussion! There's a subtle point I cut from my post for simplicity reasons, but which feels perfect for HN. I've been convinced by Mazières and the Stellar team that the classic "blockchain" works great for native tokens but is extremely dangerous for anything with counterparty redemption. For example, imagine the shitshow after a truly contentious fork,…

Regarding electricity consumption, what do you think of the argument that mining is so competitive that it can only be profitable by subsidized electricity, and that electricity is only subsidized when the local jurisdiction is creating more of it than it needs anyway? In other words, mining doesn't actually create new demand for electricity, it just soaks up the remainder already available.

"electricity is only subsidized when the local jurisdiction is creating more of it than it needs anyway?" is false - there are a few cases of negative spot prices, which nonindustrial customers can't get, but all the rest of the time electricity subsidies are for economic and social reasons.

Normally surplus electricity results in a curtailment of fossil sources.

Re: Keybase is now supported by the Stellar Development Foundation

#67

Given that stellar/lumen is a fork of ripple/xrp, and ripple/xrp seem to have a massive head start with what 100+? bank and payment providers already on board - are stellar/lumen not just competing head to head with Ripple with essentially the same technology but with a handicap of being behind in terms of development and not having an in-use production network and settlement solution?

Is the current code still a fork? I thought stellar switched to their own thing quite early alreaxy

Re: Keybase is now supported by the Stellar Development Foundation

#68
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding electricity consumption, what do you think of the argument that mining is so competitive that it can only be profitable by subsidized electricity, and that electricity is only subsidized when the local jurisdiction is creating more of it than it needs anyway? In other words, mining doesn't actually create new demand for electricity, it just soaks up the remainder already available.

There is no such thing as "excess electricity". If that power wasn't being wasted on useless cryptocurrencies, then we could have used it for useful purposes, such as processing aluminum.

If a hydroelectric power station produces 30 TWh per year, but demand including aluminum smelters is only 20 TWh, then there's 10 TWh excess.

This is use-it-or-lose-it. Should they just allow the river to flow and bypass the turbines?

Re: Keybase is now supported by the Stellar Development Foundation

#69
post #8

Last time Keybase came up I made sure to post about how great using it is and that I am super-duper enthused about Keybase. I entreated 'malgorithms to let me give him money for Keybase. And I have recommended Keybase to a ton of people and a bunch of my clients, using it in a bunch of workflows. Now those people and those clients are going to have cryptocoin bullshit stuffed into a work tool? Thanks, Chris. You're d…

Why are you disappointed if Keybase includes a wallet or a way to send people Lumens? Can you not just not use it?

If 1Pass added an optional bitcoin-browser miner, would that make you feel better about its security? What if it partnered up with BonziBuddy and pinged you during the installer? Just simple choices, they don't affect the security profile at all.

Re: Keybase is now supported by the Stellar Development Foundation

#70
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding electricity consumption, what do you think of the argument that mining is so competitive that it can only be profitable by subsidized electricity, and that electricity is only subsidized when the local jurisdiction is creating more of it than it needs anyway? In other words, mining doesn't actually create new demand for electricity, it just soaks up the remainder already available.

There is no such thing as "excess electricity". If that power wasn't being wasted on useless cryptocurrencies, then we could have used it for useful purposes, such as processing aluminum.

That's simply not true. When supply outstrips demand it's generally going to waste anyway.

Doesn't California actually pay Arizona to offload their surplus energy?

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