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Cryptographic coin flipping, now in Keybase

keybase.io

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Re: Cryptographic coin flipping, now in Keybase

#11

Post by LeoPanthera »

mr_puzzled wrote: post #10

Has Keybase lost it's way? I thought they were onto something cool and maybe could explore an enterprise play with private chats, filesharing and git for teams or something like that. Basically make money by selling to teams. But Keybase seems to have stagnated, existing apps are still quite buggy, not enough new developments recently. The facepalm moment for me was when they announced they were supported by the Stel…

Keybase's main competitor seems to be Slack. I don't use Slack but I assume that Slack can read all your messages if they want to, so privacy is the main differentiator.

All these little quality-of-life improvements on top of that can only be a good thing, IMHO.

Re: Cryptographic coin flipping, now in Keybase

#12

Post by glerk »

mr_puzzled wrote: post #10

Has Keybase lost it's way? I thought they were onto something cool and maybe could explore an enterprise play with private chats, filesharing and git for teams or something like that. Basically make money by selling to teams. But Keybase seems to have stagnated, existing apps are still quite buggy, not enough new developments recently. The facepalm moment for me was when they announced they were supported by the Stel…

> Speaking of Stellar, still no integration after 1 year??

There is integration with Stellar in keybase. I can use the app as a stellar wallet and send/receive lumens.

https://u.today/keybase-starts-supporting-stellar-wallets

Re: Cryptographic coin flipping, now in Keybase

#13

Post by guessmyname »

RawaHorse wrote: post #6

This may not be the intended use of your application, but I organize a local bdsm group (if unfamiliar, do not Google this at work), and we appreciate the security offered very much. We can even think of a few "fun" uses of this new feature.

Speaking of NSFW stuff in Keybase…

Since the end of January 2019 I’ve started to notice more and more profiles with suggestive pictures of underage humans and anime characters. I almost never log into my Keybase account, but frequently check my profile to see “friend” recommendations, then I log in and follow people who I think are interesting, mostly tech influencers. But since January-February I randomly get recommendations that include one of these NSFW accounts, which is quite unsettling because other people may think my account is somehow involved with them. One day I clicked around and found that many of these accounts follow each other in a circle that composes around 20-30 profiles. Knowing that Keybase offers encryption as one of its main features, I wouldn’t be surprised if pedophiles are already using the service to share offensive content among them.

Edit: I reported 42 accounts a few weeks ago, but not knowing what these profiles were doing, I just asked them to check. The Privacy Team at Keybase started an investigation the day after. Today, none of these accounts exist anymore, I’m not sure if that was really a pedophile network or not, but I’m glad Keybase did something about it.

Re: Cryptographic coin flipping, now in Keybase

#14

Post by bdcravens »

guessmyname wrote: post #13
RawaHorse wrote: post #6

This may not be the intended use of your application, but I organize a local bdsm group (if unfamiliar, do not Google this at work), and we appreciate the security offered very much. We can even think of a few "fun" uses of this new feature.

Speaking of NSFW stuff in Keybase… Since the end of January 2019 I’ve started to notice more and more profiles with suggestive pictures of underage humans and anime characters. I almost never log into my Keybase account, but frequently check my profile to see “friend” recommendations, then I log in and follow people who I think are interesting, mostly tech influencers. But since January-February I randomly get recomm…

I think pretty much any network with social potential will be used for porn spam eventually. (for example, I've noticed a bunch of Google Hangouts groups I've been added to for that purpose)

Re: Cryptographic coin flipping, now in Keybase

#15

Post by awakeasleep »

bdcravens wrote: post #14
guessmyname wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking of NSFW stuff in Keybase… Since the end of January 2019 I’ve started to notice more and more profiles with suggestive pictures of underage humans and anime characters. I almost never log into my Keybase account, but frequently check my profile to see “friend” recommendations, then I log in and follow people who I think are interesting, mostly tech influencers. But since January-February I randomly get recomm…

I think pretty much any network with social potential will be used for porn spam eventually. (for example, I've noticed a bunch of Google Hangouts groups I've been added to for that purpose)

I don't think this is a valid dismissal.

First, you're conflating child porn with regular porn.

Second, certain services are more often used by serious deviants, and it's a huge reputational, moral, and legal risk. If you're running a business, or a user of that service, you can't afford to bury your head in the sand.

Re: Cryptographic coin flipping, now in Keybase

#16

Post by chowells »

I see a flaw with that prng scheme. Since AES is reversible, the 128-bit blocks that make up the output cannot repeat. The output is a permutation of distinct 128-bit blocks. Early in the sequence that only matters a tiny bit, but the longer it goes, the more that tells you about possible upcoming values.

Re: Cryptographic coin flipping, now in Keybase

#17

Post by bdcravens »

awakeasleep wrote: post #15
bdcravens wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think pretty much any network with social potential will be used for porn spam eventually. (for example, I've noticed a bunch of Google Hangouts groups I've been added to for that purpose)

I don't think this is a valid dismissal. First, you're conflating child porn with regular porn. Second, certain services are more often used by serious deviants, and it's a huge reputational, moral, and legal risk. If you're running a business, or a user of that service, you can't afford to bury your head in the sand.

My apologies if you read my message as a dismissal; I wasn't trying to communicate that message. My point was that all social networks are targeted for abuse (if you don't see it on your favorite network, it's because that network probably puts a lot of time and effort and money into fighting it, not because they aren't being targeted)

Re: Cryptographic coin flipping, now in Keybase

#19

Post by tlb »

tuxxy wrote: post #18

I don't really understand why they use HMAC-SHA256. Why do many schemes decide to do this needlessly when they can use SHA3 or Blake2b?

You can't use a straight hash in applications where the plaintext might be guessable. In the example given, you might try hashing "heads" and "tails" to see if that matches the SHA you were given. The random padding on an HMAC replaces the bit about lasagna in the example.

Re: Cryptographic coin flipping, now in Keybase

#20

Post by freedomben »

guessmyname wrote: post #13
RawaHorse wrote: post #6

This may not be the intended use of your application, but I organize a local bdsm group (if unfamiliar, do not Google this at work), and we appreciate the security offered very much. We can even think of a few "fun" uses of this new feature.

Speaking of NSFW stuff in Keybase… Since the end of January 2019 I’ve started to notice more and more profiles with suggestive pictures of underage humans and anime characters. I almost never log into my Keybase account, but frequently check my profile to see “friend” recommendations, then I log in and follow people who I think are interesting, mostly tech influencers. But since January-February I randomly get recomm…

Yep, this is the latest incarnation of the evergreen philosophical problem regarding technology: capabilities can be used for good or evil, depending on the designs of the empowered. One of the main arguments that governments use these days (such as the FBI re: smartphone security/crypto) against allowing "common man" to use crypto is that criminals can use it for sex slavery and other crimes. This is a good argument since the vast majority of us find sex slavery and child porn abhorrent, as well as terrorism, etc. We are likely to give up our own rights and capabilities in the name of stopping such a grotesque practice and to protect others.

That said, I'm getting to a place personally where I think we will have no choice but to either accept the absence of privacy/security, or accept that bad people will be empowered for evil just like we are empowered for good. I hope I'm wrong tho, and we can figure out a way to prevent evil use while permitting (and encouraging) righteous use.

Note: I use the words evil and righteous for illustrative purposes, not for religious reference.

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