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Zoom Acquires Keybase

keybase.io

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Re: Zoom Acquires Keybase

#721

Post by chrisma0 »

DyslexicAtheist wrote: post #81
rvz wrote: post #54

> Ultimately Keybase's future is in Zoom's hands Well, that definitely translates to uncertainty and ultimately the death of Keybase.

from Zoom's twitter: "We are excited to integrate Keybase’s team into the Zoom family to help us build end-to-end encryption that can reach current Zoom scalability." not a word about what happens to the existing technology which doesn't sound very reassuring to existing keybase users.

This is a good point. As far as I understood, Keybase's main offering, i.e. key discovery for accounts you knew little about, was never about "the best crypto that scales to Zoom levels".

Though what the main features were got very muddled anyways, especially with the odd Stellar cryptocurrency wallet implementation. I'm very interested to see what they do with the existing tech, or whether there will be open-source forks that are somehow compatible.

Re: Zoom Acquires Keybase

#723

Post by purple-dragon »

albedoa wrote: post #702
purple-dragon wrote: post #648

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't claim that. I believe in investing in security. I'm a security professional.

You said that those things are theater until the day the product updates. We are beyond the day when that happened. So for it to be a fallacy you have to reject the context in which it was presented, which nobody but you is doing.

It's a SaaS world, baby. Product updates (can) happen everyday. I'm not sure what that proved.

Re: Zoom Acquires Keybase

#724

Post by ematvey »

mulmen wrote: post #663
derex wrote: post #602

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you elaborate on what concerns you so much that it warrants deleting your account right upon hearing the news?

I wrote Zoom off last year after the local webserver nonsense. Any company that can convince itself that is a good idea doesn't deserve my business. There's no path to redemption. Game over. In the post Covid world I was forced to compromise a bit and I will join a Zoom call in a browser (when it works) or install the app on my phone if I have to. I trust iOS to not get totally owned by a rogue app more than anything…

It could be argued that acquiring a whole security-focused company is a signal they’re seriously reconsidering their approach to security and deserve a benefit of the doubt.

Re: Zoom Acquires Keybase

#725

Post by [deleted] »

ematvey wrote: post #724
mulmen wrote: post #663

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wrote Zoom off last year after the local webserver nonsense. Any company that can convince itself that is a good idea doesn't deserve my business. There's no path to redemption. Game over. In the post Covid world I was forced to compromise a bit and I will join a Zoom call in a browser (when it works) or install the app on my phone if I have to. I trust iOS to not get totally owned by a rogue app more than anything…

It could be argued that acquiring a whole security-focused company is a signal they’re seriously reconsidering their approach to security and deserve a benefit of the doubt.

[deleted]

Re: Zoom Acquires Keybase

#726

Post by franga2000 »

This might be an exaggeration, but this feels one of the last nails in the coffin of PGP. Keybase felt like it could become the thing that finally starts making PGP more widel-used by giving it some new powers (verifying social network identities, etc.) and from the way this acquisition looks, it won't last much longer or at least won't improve much.

It's a shame, really. The web of trust idea from PGP could've been really cool and useful to apply to modern social networking and communication services - one that I can imagine even some normal users using. But it seems that Keybase were one of the last willing to try...

Re: Zoom Acquires Keybase

#727

Post by skolsuper »

marcus_holmes wrote: post #690
rhizome wrote: post #656

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they still have an obligation to do right by the minority shareholders Fiduciary duty is extremely rare to be the subject of a suit against a, let's say, CEO. It's a complex area of law because it isn't actually a law, nor specified anywhere, and not a requirement for corporate existence. So, it's a set of court decisions that future cases are built upon, but in general a house of cards in that it could be invalida…

C-level executives are appointed and removed by the board. The board is appointed and removed by the shareholders. Yes, technically, executives are not required to act in the shareholders interests by law. But they are often appointed with the specific instruction to act in the shareholders' best interests, and can be removed from office for not doing that. From my experience being a CEO and reporting to a board, try…

I think you missed the context of the founder-CEO being a 51% shareholder.

Re: Zoom Acquires Keybase

#728

Post by ValentineC »

nske wrote: post #609
LeoPanthera wrote: post #599

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Keybase app is also written in Electron.

I know, that's why I was surprised it managed to somehow not suffer from the same performance and functionality problems that I observe on the rest I mentioned. I didn't say that all electron apps have to suffer, at the same time it seems to me that there is a strong correlation.

I suspect it might be because most Keybase users don't receive data on the Keybase app on the same scale as how they might on Slack etc.

Re: Zoom Acquires Keybase

#729

Post by olah_1 »

dcow wrote: post #714
olah_1 wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it is inevitable, yeah. But, this wouldn't have been a problem if the product itself was decentralized. For example, if it was optional to connect to the Keybase network to begin with. Imagine a keybase-type app that is built on web of trust rather than centralized servers.

Wait what? That's called PGP. And people like to hate on it because it's a decentralized web of trust. The whole point of Keybase is to pave over the problems with web of trust by creating a social identity layer that more accurately reflects how trust relationships actually form. An open source social identity attestation layer that people can operate and federate. Now that sounds cool!

> An open source social identity attestation layer that people can operate and federate. Now that sounds cool!

Hard agree! Let me know what you think of this project Iris. I know it's still early, but the plan is sound imo https://github.com/irislib/iris

Re: Zoom Acquires Keybase

#730

Post by benhurmarcel »

swyx wrote: post #120
underyx wrote: post #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 o…

is this an acquihire then?

Do "acquihires" work in practice? It reminds me of this Dilbert comic: https://dilbert.com/strip/2014-07-31
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