Ask HN: Keybase Alternatives? • Hacker News Board

simlevesque wrote: post #9

client4 wrote: post #5

I'd suspect this is jumping the gun a lot bit. Keybase was running a free service for years and has matured a lot in the last year (post crypto debacle). There's nothing stopping them from 1. Letting Keybase go into maintenance mode. 2. Donating the server to a foundation. 3. Open sourcing there server. In all these scenarios Zoom gets better security which is a win for the world :)

They will lost all the people working on it. The ship has sailed.

I would bet there’s enough community interest to make it a viable open source project if they open source the server code. It’s worth advocating to Keybase team for.

Re: Ask HN: Keybase Alternatives?

#14

Post by ParadisoShlee » Thu, May 07, 2020, 3:20 PM UTC

Hopefully something with Activitypub can be created... splitting up lots of independent Keybases connected using federation protocols would be rad.

Re: Ask HN: Keybase Alternatives?

#15

Post by rasengan » Thu, May 07, 2020, 3:21 PM UTC

Handshake [1] is a great keybase alternative that doesn’t even rely on centralization. All information is verifiable with the blockchain acting as the root of trust.

[1] https://handshake.org

Re: Ask HN: Keybase Alternatives?

#16

Post by lucideer » Thu, May 07, 2020, 3:24 PM UTC

> I myself mostly use the following features from Keybase: Chat, KBFS, Git repositories and encrypting messages sent out-of-band via PGP in Keybase (and the various cryptographic tools [signing, validation etc])

While all these features are individually nice, I kinda started to worry about Keybase as a product when they started bolting on stuff like this.

I think the key (pun intended) to stable & ongoing success in this space is to focus on doing one thing well. Keybase was incepted as a service for signing & validation. There's currently https://keys.pub for that. I'd be interested to hear if there's others.

For chat, there's a lot of competitors to choose from. I like Riot.im.

For KBFS, Tresorit has been mentioned. I signed up, but haven't been super impressed with their clients yet. I'm not sure what better options are out there.

Re: Ask HN: Keybase Alternatives?

#17

Post by FooBarWidget » Thu, May 07, 2020, 3:25 PM UTC

atonse wrote: post #8

I am also curious here. I have used and advocated strongly for Keybase with a couple of local government clients to send sensitive files back and forth (not sensitive in the sense of national security, but more to preserve privacy and store encrypted at rest). But I want to get ahead of the concern that Keybase is now owned by a Chinese company, which instantly compromises it. PGP is dead on arrival, since it's an ov…

Zoom is not a Chinese company. The founder merely was born in China. He is US citizen.

I am very put off by this anti-China rhetoric. Everything that even has a remote connection to China is now under suspicion. This is madness.

Re: Ask HN: Keybase Alternatives?

#18

Post by SkyMarshal » Thu, May 07, 2020, 3:28 PM UTC

rasengan wrote: post #15

Handshake [1] is a great keybase alternative that doesn’t even rely on centralization. All information is verifiable with the blockchain acting as the root of trust. [1] https://handshake.org

I thought Handshake was decentralized DNS server. Keybase is primarily a secure chat app. Does Handshake have chat, chat room, and team chat functionality too?

Re: Ask HN: Keybase Alternatives?

#19

Post by dasil003 » Thu, May 07, 2020, 3:29 PM UTC

FooBarWidget wrote: post #17

atonse wrote: post #8

I am also curious here. I have used and advocated strongly for Keybase with a couple of local government clients to send sensitive files back and forth (not sensitive in the sense of national security, but more to preserve privacy and store encrypted at rest). But I want to get ahead of the concern that Keybase is now owned by a Chinese company, which instantly compromises it. PGP is dead on arrival, since it's an ov…

Zoom is not a Chinese company. The founder merely was born in China. He is US citizen. I am very put off by this anti-China rhetoric. Everything that even has a remote connection to China is now under suspicion. This is madness.

Agreed, this is a huge distraction that gives cover to bad domestic policy and surveillance over-reach.

Re: Ask HN: Keybase Alternatives?

#20

Post by imglorp » Thu, May 07, 2020, 3:32 PM UTC

FooBarWidget wrote: post #17

atonse wrote: post #8

I am also curious here. I have used and advocated strongly for Keybase with a couple of local government clients to send sensitive files back and forth (not sensitive in the sense of national security, but more to preserve privacy and store encrypted at rest). But I want to get ahead of the concern that Keybase is now owned by a Chinese company, which instantly compromises it. PGP is dead on arrival, since it's an ov…

Zoom is not a Chinese company. The founder merely was born in China. He is US citizen. I am very put off by this anti-China rhetoric. Everything that even has a remote connection to China is now under suspicion. This is madness.

Maybe not a Chinese company, but there's a lot of smoke around the question of control. Enough smoke to indicate fire?

Eg smoke: https://citizenlab.ca/2020/04/move-fast-roll-your-own-crypto...