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Show HN: Working on a Zero-Knowledge Daily Journaling App

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Re: Show HN: Working on a Zero-Knowledge Daily Journaling App

#51
For the love of anything, please stop messing with the scrollbar. Not only (as two others mentioned) does scrolling only work on part of the screen, it also moves at a completely different speed than what I have set up, and hides the scrollbar.

Browser can scroll and handle scrolling well. Let them do it.

Re: Show HN: Working on a Zero-Knowledge Daily Journaling App

#52

I've worked on 2 "zero-knowledge" apps (basically meaning all data is encrypted/decrypted on the client) and I would advise against it: * most consumers have no idea what you're talking about / don't care * those who know what "zero trust" is, also know that it's not really trustless. You do have to trust the company that it will never send the password or plaintext data back to the server. Checking this on a continu…

While this is very well put, isn't this like saying "people could jump over the safety rail. So there is no point having it".

Your logic that the app could deploy a "rogue update" so it has little merit would essentially say there is no point in mitigating anything because insert unlikely failure case.

When saying it causes people to trust you less by raising the spectre I disagree. I would assume that a company focused on zero knowledge would also pay attention to other mitigations and related best practices.

Agree with the downsides.

Re: Show HN: Working on a Zero-Knowledge Daily Journaling App

#53

I've worked on 2 "zero-knowledge" apps (basically meaning all data is encrypted/decrypted on the client) and I would advise against it: * most consumers have no idea what you're talking about / don't care * those who know what "zero trust" is, also know that it's not really trustless. You do have to trust the company that it will never send the password or plaintext data back to the server. Checking this on a continu…

While this is very well put, isn't this like saying "people could jump over the safety rail. So there is no point having it". Your logic that the app could deploy a "rogue update" so it has little merit would essentially say there is no point in mitigating anything because insert unlikely failure case . When saying it causes people to trust you less by raising the spectre I disagree. I would assume that a company foc…

In a zero-knowledge setup, the client needs to trust that the setup is actually zero knowledge, and that future updates will not change that. Essentially the client needs to trust in the absence of incompetence or malice.

In a classic setup, the client needs to trust that the service provider is not malicious or incompetent either.

The level of trust thats required for a zero-knowledge setup is not fundamentally different from that of a classic setup. Most importantly, the amount of trust required is substantially greater than zero.

Re: Show HN: Working on a Zero-Knowledge Daily Journaling App

#56

I've been journaling for about 15 years now. The big key to getting consistent at it was to stop worrying about trying to write a lot, or trying to write something insightful, and just write a sentence or two at a minimum. Often, that turns into more or into something insightful.

1/ what do you feel like you've learned or gained from this? 2/ do you ever go back and study what you wrote or is it more about giving your thoughts clarity today?

I've been journaling for 20 years and often I open old files to talk to the younger me. It's remarkable how you change over the years, a feeling that, AFAIK, any other medium achieves (maybe video/audio recordings, but text is way simpler to register, storage, and retrieve).

It's one of the things I'm most grateful of doing for so long.

Re: Show HN: Working on a Zero-Knowledge Daily Journaling App

#57

I've worked on 2 "zero-knowledge" apps (basically meaning all data is encrypted/decrypted on the client) and I would advise against it: * most consumers have no idea what you're talking about / don't care * those who know what "zero trust" is, also know that it's not really trustless. You do have to trust the company that it will never send the password or plaintext data back to the server. Checking this on a continu…

These are great points. “Zero trust” is only really possible on FOSS self-hosted systems.

Re: Show HN: Working on a Zero-Knowledge Daily Journaling App

#58

I've worked on 2 "zero-knowledge" apps (basically meaning all data is encrypted/decrypted on the client) and I would advise against it: * most consumers have no idea what you're talking about / don't care * those who know what "zero trust" is, also know that it's not really trustless. You do have to trust the company that it will never send the password or plaintext data back to the server. Checking this on a continu…

> You do have to trust the company that it will never send the password or plaintext data back to the server. Checking this on a continuous basis is essentially impossible

This is why I like decentralized apps where you can use a content-addressed frontend that is just pinned to a specific version. I can choose to update to the next major version if I want to.

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