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Zoom Acquires Keybase

keybase.io

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Re: Zoom Acquires Keybase

#61

Post by dcow »

andrepd wrote: post #55
ithkuil wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why not look at the problem the other way around? I don't have much respect for zoom's security practices, while I do have much respect for the keybase team. Perhaps this is Zoom's way of admitting that there is no way they can just solve the problem internally by keeping doing what they're doing and they need to get some fresh blood and build upon good practices designed outside their current culture.

Then why acquire? Why not just hire as a consultant?

Because keybase obviously needs money and zoom has a lot of it right now..

Re: Zoom Acquires Keybase

#62

Post by hnarn »

I've used Keybase for a long time but I never quite understood the purpose of it. It never "just worked" for me and my experience was mostly chats being unreadable, my account having to be reset, and a lot of new functionality that seemed like it did what other products already did, just not as good.

I always liked the idea and the people behind it seemed like good people, but I'm sad to say I won't miss a worse version of Slack, Bitcoin and Dropbox.

Re: Zoom Acquires Keybase

#63

Post by f38zf5vdt »

techntoke wrote: post #45
Galaxeblaffer wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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

So if I'm reading this right... the participants of the DAO can band together and sell their company to a company as well? It looks like a DAO just requires some kind of cryptocurrency to participate, and then the participants get control over the operations of the DAO. So ownership is transferable at any time by these parties.

Re: Zoom Acquires Keybase

#64

Post by souterrain »

frisco wrote: post #14

I had such high hopes for Keybase; kbfs had completely replaced Dropbox for me. This is terrible news.

This is precisely why Zoom is acquiring Keybase. Zoom seeks to become the single "remote work tool", challenging Dropbox, et al. directly.

I'm particularly disenchanted with the growth of these multipurpose tools, but I am not their target audience. (Nor, I suspect, are many HN participants, but this is a baseless guess.) I suppose I'm more of an adherent to so-called "UNIX philosophy"--the best, single-purpose tool for each task, preferably that can be combined with its like for a solution customizable to how a specific user gets work done.

Re: Zoom Acquires Keybase

#65

Post by kylehotchkiss »

Keybase was cool tech that for years I hoped would find a profit model and more everyday use case. I liked being able to prove I was in control of something on the web. I use Zoom for work and think it's been one of the more stable video conferencing solutions out there but I certainly can't trust them to maintain something like Keybase in a secure manner. Bye keybase, I know you had bills to pay and that this is a tough economy :( I hope your core team will be able to regroup after cashing out at Zoom with some new projects!

Re: Zoom Acquires Keybase

#66

Post by coldpie »

dcow wrote: post #60
roblabla wrote: post #34

Keybase' post about the acquisition: 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…

I don’t necessarily read it that way. Keybase is 100% functional and has worked well for a long time. Zoom needs people who know how to make modern client software and chat if they want to compete with the Slacks and Teams, etc. You can’t even screen share on wayland... it’s that bad. If keybase ultimately gets secure video, and zoom a security architecture overhaul, how is that a bad thing?

Well, it's pretty clearly an aquihire. Zoom gets a team of highly skilled cryptographers and Internet protocol experts. Good for them. But that means the team that created Keybase as an innovate PKI store won't be working on that anymore. That's not Zoom's business, and probably won't be, as Keybase themselves never figured out how to turn it into a business.

Re: Zoom Acquires Keybase

#68

Post by mfer »

What are the best alternatives to Keybase?

I'm curious about the encrypted filesystem, secure messaging that works on computers (non-phone), and public key trust.

Re: Zoom Acquires Keybase

#69

Post by kgraves »

ddevault wrote: post #53

Keybase helped me to identify a trend in the software industry: using a pretty UI to cover up the disruption of an open ecosystem with a closed, centralized replacement. Keybase seemed cool on the face of it - making encryption easier is a laudible goal, and PGP certainly could use the improvement. But, thanks to Keybase, now I ask different questions upfront. Beware the Keybase formula: 1. Integrates with an existin…

I think we could just stop at:

VC Funded™

Re: Zoom Acquires Keybase

#70

Post by cowmix »

pbnjay wrote: post #19

Oof. Keybase was struggling to define what exactly it was, so I guess they is the best exit option for them anyway...

Thank you!

I've been using it on and off for years.. I'm still not sure what exactly it is or under what circumstances I should be using it.

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