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Zoom Acquires Keybase

keybase.io

41–50 of 751 posts

Re: Zoom Acquires Keybase

#41
post #28

I'm seeing a certain pattern here, aren't we all just fooling ourselves? Isn't this just all inevitable? Aren't all these startups just lining up all in the hopes just to get acquired? I guess when we see VC Funded™ on any startup what it _really means_ is that: "We are prioritising a return for our investors even if it means violating our mission statement".

We need a new type of company that can never be acquired.

Re: Zoom Acquires Keybase

#42
post #32
post #20

Looks like it wasn't a good idea to leave your private keys in Keybase's servers was it? Perhaps the moment that Keybase took VC funding a while back, it was over to begin with and the principles of being a "Slack competitor" and respecting their users privacy went straight out of the window and into the bin. I really had high hopes for Keybase as a Slack competitor, the cryptocurrency stuff I actively ignored, but t…

Wait, what? People gave Keybase their private keys?? Isn't keybase just some glorified modernized web of trust infrastructure?

It was well-intentioned. For a time, Keybase provided users the option to upload their private keys so they didn't have to maintain them themselves. You could just log into Keybase and send signed messages, decrypt messages, etc without the hassle of managing your keys locally. It was definitely a bad idea and I think they dropped it a few months/years later, but it at least wasn't totally out of left field.

Re: Zoom Acquires Keybase

#43
post #32
post #20

Looks like it wasn't a good idea to leave your private keys in Keybase's servers was it? Perhaps the moment that Keybase took VC funding a while back, it was over to begin with and the principles of being a "Slack competitor" and respecting their users privacy went straight out of the window and into the bin. I really had high hopes for Keybase as a Slack competitor, the cryptocurrency stuff I actively ignored, but t…

Wait, what? People gave Keybase their private keys?? Isn't keybase just some glorified modernized web of trust infrastructure?

No, they didn't. There is an option to have Keybase sync a [backup] copy of your private key(s) between your devices for you but the key is encrypted by you. And, none of their stuff like chat or git etc. depends on using/accessing those keys in anyway (they built out their own domain-applicable pki for that—in other words, chat doesn't use pgp). It’s just a convenience option for those who want it and it’s not the default.

Re: Zoom Acquires Keybase

#44
Keybase's side of the announcement: https://keybase.io/blog/keybase-joins-zoom

> What the Keybase team will be doing

> Initially, our single top priority is helping to make Zoom even more secure. There are no specific plans for the Keybase app yet. Ultimately Keybase's future is in Zoom's hands, and we'll see where that takes us. Of course, if anything changes about Keybase’s availability, our users will get plenty of notice.

> So, our shortest-term directive is to significantly improve our security effectiveness, by working on a product that's that much bigger than Keybase. We can't be more specific than that, because we're just diving in.

They're not even making the usual "Zoom is committed to keeping Keybase alive" promise :(

Re: Zoom Acquires Keybase

#45
post #28

I'm seeing a certain pattern here, aren't we all just fooling ourselves? Isn't this just all inevitable? Aren't all these startups just lining up all in the hopes just to get acquired? I guess when we see VC Funded™ on any startup what it _really means_ is that: "We are prioritising a return for our investors even if it means violating our mission statement".

We need a new type of company that can never be acquired.

DAO:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decentralized_autonomous_organ...

Re: Zoom Acquires Keybase

#46

Given the security concerns around Zoom, and the apparent lack of QC that might have prevented those concerns, this news is appalling. I love Keybase, it's used by many people, but I suspect it will now die a quick death. More accurately I suspect it will slide into a coma - not quite dead, but not in wide use anymore either.

Yeah for the few people in the world who actually used Keybase and understood (at least partially) why it was a neat thing... most of those people are also those who have been following the Zoom debacle, and will likely consider abandoning the platform.

Re: Zoom Acquires Keybase

#47
> Zoom Acquires Keybase and Announces Goal of Developing the Most Broadly Used Enterprise End-to-End Encryption Offering

So is this real end-to-end encryption, or Zoom-brand "end"-to-our-server-to-"end" encryption?

Re: Zoom Acquires Keybase

#49

Cue the anti-China conspiracy theories. It's incredible how effective the anti-China propaganda has been.

My conspiracy is that people who have my private keys can read my encrypted communication. No need to drag China into this.

Maybe Zoom is trying to solve that with help from Keybase?

Re: Zoom Acquires Keybase

#50
post #28

I'm seeing a certain pattern here, aren't we all just fooling ourselves? Isn't this just all inevitable? Aren't all these startups just lining up all in the hopes just to get acquired? I guess when we see VC Funded™ on any startup what it _really means_ is that: "We are prioritising a return for our investors even if it means violating our mission statement".

For most, sure. How else do you "exit"? It's not a great time for an IPO. Nor for raising money.

So either you're self-sustaining and are in it for the long haul, or you're looking to get acquired.

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