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Keybase raises $10.8M

keybase.io

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Re: Keybase raises $10.8M

#51

Post by hellbanner »

irq-1 wrote: post #50

Keybase is the wrong way to do a PKI directory. First, people should have multiple keys/identities by default; multiple identities should be the normal thing everyone does. Single identities will be used by governments to control people. They'll also work against normal communication patterns where people speak differently to different groups (think parents, friends, coworkers.) Second, matching a name with social me…

Great response. Do you think there's a way to monetize this proposed solution?

Re: Keybase raises $10.8M

#52

Post by nailer »

irq-1 wrote: post #50

Keybase is the wrong way to do a PKI directory. First, people should have multiple keys/identities by default; multiple identities should be the normal thing everyone does. Single identities will be used by governments to control people. They'll also work against normal communication patterns where people speak differently to different groups (think parents, friends, coworkers.) Second, matching a name with social me…

> Second, matching a name with social media is the wrong way to lookup others.

Assuming it /is/: a well known social media site called Facebook already has a space for GPG keys.

That doesn't mean keybase can't succeed and I do wish them luck though. First step: buy keybase.com, because people who don't know what encryption is don't understand .io domain names.

Re: Keybase raises $10.8M

#53

Post by realusername »

coldpie wrote: post #46
realusername wrote: post #42

I have a small question here for the people who use keybase and it's been difficult to find answers for this. How do you encrypt per email address ? is that even possible ? I would like to use it for a personal project of mine and that would be the use case. (Sorry to hijack this thread, it might be interesting for other people). Congratulation to the whole team for your hard work !

I don't know what you mean by "encrypt per email address." Who is doing the encrypting, and to who? Do you want to have multiple keypairs associated with a single keybase account?

You can encrypt with lots of things, for example

$> keybase encrypt twitter://twitter_id -m 'message'

But there seems to be no way to to it with an email address like this:

$> keybase encrypt email://email@example.org -m 'message'

Or maybe I did not understand something.

Re: Keybase raises $10.8M

#54

Post by rosser »

jsprogrammer wrote: post #49
rosser wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Edit: Would be considerate if the down-modders would provide an alternate scenario. I'd imagine you're being downvoted more for the "U jelly?" childishness than the (im)plausibility of your (completely out of touch with reality) notion of how Keybase got their funding. That's why I downvoted, anyway; I saw your opening line, clicked the down arrow, and moved on to the next comment without further thought or considera…

Thanks for your opinion. >"U jelly?" certainly qualifies as that. I'd argue that maligning keybase as a hobby project qualifies as much as "U jelly?". At least it is discourse, rather than an anonymous downmod.

It's a matter of tone. Whether you disagree with the Ur-parent's position that Keybase is — or, more accurately, "feels like" — a "hobby" project, the position was presented first as an individual's perspective, and second, was asking for clarification. He (?) wasn't saying, "Keybase is just a hobby project," but rather, "Keybase feels to me like a hobby project. How does something that seems like a hobby project get $10MM in funding?"

Your response was low-brow dismissal, and not of the poster's position (you didn't respond to what they said), but of the poster (again, you talked about the poster, not what they said).

Do you see the difference?

Re: Keybase raises $10.8M

#55

Post by jsprogrammer »

rosser wrote: post #54
jsprogrammer wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for your opinion. >"U jelly?" certainly qualifies as that. I'd argue that maligning keybase as a hobby project qualifies as much as "U jelly?". At least it is discourse, rather than an anonymous downmod.

It's a matter of tone. Whether you disagree with the Ur-parent's position that Keybase is — or, more accurately, "feels like" — a "hobby" project, the position was presented first as an individual's perspective, and second, was asking for clarification. He (?) wasn't saying, "Keybase is just a hobby project," but rather, "Keybase feels to me like a hobby project. How does something that seems like a hobby project get…

Mine was more terse, surely. However, it accurately reflected my perspective, based on what I just read. I didn't present it as anything different.

Further, I directly answered the question that was asked. Do you not think that is the general interaction structure of funding? Surely, it doesn't cover every case, but do you seriously think it did not happen in this case? No one has yet put forth any other scenario.

Re: Keybase raises $10.8M

#56

Post by hippich »

jsprogrammer wrote: post #49
rosser wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Edit: Would be considerate if the down-modders would provide an alternate scenario. I'd imagine you're being downvoted more for the "U jelly?" childishness than the (im)plausibility of your (completely out of touch with reality) notion of how Keybase got their funding. That's why I downvoted, anyway; I saw your opening line, clicked the down arrow, and moved on to the next comment without further thought or considera…

Thanks for your opinion. >"U jelly?" certainly qualifies as that. I'd argue that maligning keybase as a hobby project qualifies as much as "U jelly?". At least it is discourse, rather than an anonymous downmod.

what do you mean by "maligning"? Second paragraph of their blog post:

"Keybase started as a PGP keyserver hobby project, aimed at making key lookups as easy as knowing someone's username."

Re: Keybase raises $10.8M

#57

Post by jakejake »

hippich wrote: post #20

From my limited following keybase.io it seems like this is mostly hobby project. How does one get investment for this kind of projects? Do you need to know someone already? Or do you decide to pull a plunge and create business plan and present it on one of these demo days organized for investors? I feel like there is a huge gap between potent, but still hobby, project and series A funding.

Being in the in-crowd of silicon valley seems to be the best way to get funding. So, in all seriousness, your question would probably better be phrased "how do I get into the silicon valley in-crowd?"

Re: Keybase raises $10.8M

#58

Post by hippich »

jsprogrammer wrote: post #24
hippich wrote: post #20

From my limited following keybase.io it seems like this is mostly hobby project. How does one get investment for this kind of projects? Do you need to know someone already? Or do you decide to pull a plunge and create business plan and present it on one of these demo days organized for investors? I feel like there is a huge gap between potent, but still hobby, project and series A funding.

U jelly? I imagine you walk up to Marc and say, "Hey, we are building PGP for the world." Some days later, $10,000,000 pops in to your bank account. Edit: Would be considerate if the down-modders would provide an alternate scenario.

No, I am not jealous or anything. I have bunch of side projects which I never considered "investable" since none of them has clear path to monetization and/or built openly. Therefore I wanted to know what it takes to grow a full scaled business out of currently non-monetizable hobby project.

Re: Keybase raises $10.8M

#59

Post by teacup50 »

chrisfosterelli wrote: post #13
baby wrote: post #11

It's pretty awesome how simple it is to use. But why trust a third party to hold your private key? Why trust them to not store the plaintext when you encrypt/decrypt with them?

You don't have to trust them, you can use their open source downloadable client. The web interface is only for ease of use, and they make it clear that many people consider that "unsafe" compared to their desktop/command line alternative.

Yet they still offer it as the easy option, despite it being absolutely wrong.

Re: Keybase raises $10.8M

#60

Post by rosser »

jsprogrammer wrote: post #55
rosser wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a matter of tone. Whether you disagree with the Ur-parent's position that Keybase is — or, more accurately, "feels like" — a "hobby" project, the position was presented first as an individual's perspective, and second, was asking for clarification. He (?) wasn't saying, "Keybase is just a hobby project," but rather, "Keybase feels to me like a hobby project. How does something that seems like a hobby project get…

Mine was more terse, surely. However, it accurately reflected my perspective, based on what I just read. I didn't present it as anything different. Further, I directly answered the question that was asked. Do you not think that is the general interaction structure of funding? Surely, it doesn't cover every case, but do you seriously think it did not happen in this case? No one has yet put forth any other scenario.

Again, the downvotes, and this entire sub-thread have nothing whatsoever to do with the structure of funding, and whether your scenario is more or less plausible than the money being left under their pillows overnight by an army of Oompa Loompas wearing magical flying tutus.

It is (IMO) solely and utterly about "U jelly?". If you hadn't opened with that, you may or may not have been downvoted, but none of this discussion would have ensued, because then your post would have been a response to what its parent said, instead of a comment about its parent's author.

I don't know how many more flashing neon arrows I can put around the distinction I'm trying to draw here. Either you get it, or you don't.

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