Show HN: YourNote, a note-taking app that puts users’ data first
1–10 of 60 posts
Re: Show HN: YourNote, a note-taking app that puts users’ data first
#2Hi HN,
The founder of YourNote here. YourNote is a user-first note-taking app. By user-first, we mean that user's personal data (which are the notes) are guaranteed to be secure and private if you use YourNote. This is achieved by using Blockstack and Gaia for user authentication and user data storage. So, at any point in time, user and only the user has access to their notes. Even if their Gaia storage gets hijacked, their data is encrypted using the keys only the user holds so it's basically impossible to access a user's data for a third party. This establishes two things.
1. Data Security
2. Data Privacy
So with YourNote and Blockstack, we can be sure that we are good on those fronts. Another thing that makes YourNote interesting is that it uses open standard (markdown with frontmatter) for storing notes. So even if YourNote gets taken down, the user can still access their data using any text editor as the data is stored on their own storage. Also, if the user starts hating YourNote for some reason, they can export their data and either use a text editor for accessing them, or fork YourNote and make their own app. So basically, another thing that YourNote guarantees is -
3. Data Accessibility
I believe these three things are very important for a note-taking app which stores data that is more "personal" and "valuable" to the user than photos, media, and other data.
HN, I would love to know what you think about the idea and the product. I know that it's a long way to go before this can become something that people will readily jump ship on, but I hope it's a valid start.
Re: Show HN: YourNote, a note-taking app that puts users’ data first
#3Hi HN, The founder of YourNote here. YourNote is a user-first note-taking app. By user-first, we mean that user's personal data (which are the notes) are guaranteed to be secure and private if you use YourNote. This is achieved by using Blockstack and Gaia for user authentication and user data storage. So, at any point in time, user and only the user has access to their notes. Even if their Gaia storage gets hijacked…
What is Blockstack?
What is Gaia?
Re: Show HN: YourNote, a note-taking app that puts users’ data first
#4Hi HN, The founder of YourNote here. YourNote is a user-first note-taking app. By user-first, we mean that user's personal data (which are the notes) are guaranteed to be secure and private if you use YourNote. This is achieved by using Blockstack and Gaia for user authentication and user data storage. So, at any point in time, user and only the user has access to their notes. Even if their Gaia storage gets hijacked…
What is Blockstack? What is Gaia?
Blockstack is like a framework that allows people to create and access decentralized apps on top of it. It enables that by letting users created a decentralized ID that is stored on the blockchain (bitcoin) and giving users access to the apps based on that ID (like authentication).
Gaia is a storage system built by the Blockstack team. It is different from IPFS and others in the sense that it allows the user to choose where they store their data. This storage location is called Gaia hub. This approach gives users absolute control over their data which is unlike other distributed storage systems.
You can learn more about them here.
https://blockstack.org/what-is-blockstack/ https://github.com/blockstack/gaia
Re: Show HN: YourNote, a note-taking app that puts users’ data first
#5Hi HN, The founder of YourNote here. YourNote is a user-first note-taking app. By user-first, we mean that user's personal data (which are the notes) are guaranteed to be secure and private if you use YourNote. This is achieved by using Blockstack and Gaia for user authentication and user data storage. So, at any point in time, user and only the user has access to their notes. Even if their Gaia storage gets hijacked…
at any point in time, user and only
the user has access to their notes
When I use your app, you can do anything you want to my data. You might promise me that the Javascript you delivered to my browser is treating my data in a certain way. Storing it in encrypted form or whatnot. But that is just a promise. Reality is: you can ship me code that does whatever you like.
Re: Show HN: YourNote, a note-taking app that puts users’ data first
#6The landing page doesn't show me anything about this product, and just forces me to login with 'blockstack'.
Guess I'll close the tab ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Re: Show HN: YourNote, a note-taking app that puts users’ data first
#7Hi HN, The founder of YourNote here. YourNote is a user-first note-taking app. By user-first, we mean that user's personal data (which are the notes) are guaranteed to be secure and private if you use YourNote. This is achieved by using Blockstack and Gaia for user authentication and user data storage. So, at any point in time, user and only the user has access to their notes. Even if their Gaia storage gets hijacked…
at any point in time, user and only the user has access to their notes I don't think that is true. When I use your app, you can do anything you want to my data. You might promise me that the Javascript you delivered to my browser is treating my data in a certain way. Storing it in encrypted form or whatnot. But that is just a promise. Reality is: you can ship me code that does whatever you like.
That is true, and the only way to fix that is when users see the code and run it themselves (I plan to open source very soon). Apart from that, I don't think I can provide any other guarantees. No open source project can. If they are discovered doing something bad, they go rekt. That's how it usually is. So what's the point here? Should I not have a line like this in my copy?
Another thing that can be done is that I distribute my application in such a way that its code is directly linked to the open source GitHub repo. It can be done by having some script as the distributable that clones and runs the source code (it's a very bad way though). It would be interesting to know if any other open source project in the privacy space is already doing something extreme like that.
Re: Show HN: YourNote, a note-taking app that puts users’ data first
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
at any point in time, user and only the user has access to their notes I don't think that is true. When I use your app, you can do anything you want to my data. You might promise me that the Javascript you delivered to my browser is treating my data in a certain way. Storing it in encrypted form or whatnot. But that is just a promise. Reality is: you can ship me code that does whatever you like.
That is true, and the only way to fix that is when users see the code and run it themselves (I plan to open source very soon). Apart from that, I don't think I can provide any other guarantees. No open source project can. If they are discovered doing something bad, they go rekt. That's how it usually is. So what's the point here? Should I not have a line like this in my copy? Another thing that can be done is that I…
Or more simply, just allow users to self host. Users can trust one version of the app, and then only update when they need a new feature, at which point they can choose to trust that version.
However, that already exists. I can use NextCloud in this manner and the have a note app.
Re: Show HN: YourNote, a note-taking app that puts users’ data first
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
What is Blockstack? What is Gaia?
Blockstack is like a framework that allows people to create and access decentralized apps on top of it. It enables that by letting users created a decentralized ID that is stored on the blockchain (bitcoin) and giving users access to the apps based on that ID (like authentication). Gaia is a storage system built by the Blockstack team. It is different from IPFS and others in the sense that it allows the user to choos…
What happens if one day Blockstack and Gaia go definitely away?
Re: Show HN: YourNote, a note-taking app that puts users’ data first
#10This sounds like a great idea.
If this product is free and takes off, how do you plan to monetize the website?