Zoom Acquires Keybase • Hacker News Board

Re: Zoom Acquires Keybase

#321

Post by OJFord » Thu, May 07, 2020, 4:26 PM UTC

neltnerb wrote: post #251

tobylane wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

@Keybase users: Check if you uploaded your private key. I hope it is rare but now is the time to make that non existent.

I signed up so long ago that I'm not quite sure what you mean. I remember posting a bunch of public keys (like on my profile here). I think the keybase app generated them along with a private key but it has been like three years. I don't remember at all uploading one or where to find it if I did, can you explain the issue you have in mind a little more?

You can optionally have Keybase (generate and) store your private key for you.

It's designed to lower the barrier to entry, but is obviously less secure than managing it yourself outside of Keybase (e.g. in GPG keyring, or a physical OpenPGP smartcard such as a Yubikey) - and some consequently wish the storage had never even been offered.

Re: Zoom Acquires Keybase

#322

Post by brynet » Thu, May 07, 2020, 4:27 PM UTC

You can permanently delete your keybase.io account with the command-line utility:

    $ keybase account delete

Re: Zoom Acquires Keybase

#323

Post by djrogers » Thu, May 07, 2020, 4:28 PM UTC

fao_ wrote: post #244

coldpie wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who works at an open-source-focused business, I respectfully disagree. Unlike proprietary software, open source software doesn't depend on the broken window fallacy. As a result, it's really hard to make open source profitable. There's lots of different avenues to get there, and I don't like to fault someone for their efforts if the bulk of their work goes towards improving open source software, as I think…

I mean, there's a fatal flaw in the broken window fallacy anyway: > It is not seen that as our shopkeeper has spent six francs upon one thing, he cannot spend them upon another. It is not seen that if he had not had a window to replace, he would, perhaps, have replaced his old shoes, or added another book to his library. In short, he would have employed his six francs in some way, which this accident has prevented.[1…

We're getting way off topic here, but you have a horribly misguided premise here. A typical shopkeeper is not in the .1% 'cash hoarding' class. Small businesses are mostly run by people with average resources, and their capital is typically spent on their business and personal needs.

Re: Zoom Acquires Keybase

#324

Post by mike-cardwell » Thu, May 07, 2020, 4:28 PM UTC

Eurgh. Time to transfer out my XLM and find some other way to handle my private git repos.

Re: Zoom Acquires Keybase

#325

Post by zelly » Thu, May 07, 2020, 4:29 PM UTC

pornel wrote: post #319

roblabla wrote: post #34

Keybase' post about the acquisition: 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…

Keybase was dead as soon as they took VC money. Their original purpose — tying identities to keys — could have been a nice small non-profit. But there aren't fortunes to be made from managing GPG keys, so they had to pivot into shark jumping.

https://pgp.mit.edu/

Re: Zoom Acquires Keybase

#326

Post by gwd » Thu, May 07, 2020, 4:30 PM UTC

formercoder wrote: post #121

momokoko wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They aren’t. They are making a lot of money which is what the business was made for. The post is actually refreshingly honest that keybase is now abandoned and will probably die at some point. The idea that companies were stupid enough to place their internal identity on some random 3rd party is so incredibly stupid that it’s hard to feel too bad for anyone. Congrats Keybase!

Thank you. Keybase had investors and I’m sure the premium Zoom offered was unbeatable. Zoom can effectively pay infinity with equity. Those investors knew that this was the best way they’d ever have to realize gains. That’s why they invested in the first place.

Well, when FB bought WhatsApp, its founders stayed on for a bit to vest his shares then founded Signal with his "screw you" money. Maybe some of Keybase's founders can do the same thing.

Re: Zoom Acquires Keybase

#327

Post by corkscrew » Thu, May 07, 2020, 4:30 PM UTC

defulmere wrote: post #173

Wow, it didn't take them long to dumb down https://keybase.io - no mention of all of the cool nerdy crypto stuff, git, etc at all, now it's just another chat app.

It's been like this for weeks

Re: Zoom Acquires Keybase

#328

Post by KAMSPioneer » Thu, May 07, 2020, 4:31 PM UTC

mikro2nd wrote: post #292

KAMSPioneer wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Holy crap, the Matrix/Riot teams have been busy! Congrats on the progress, it's very exciting to watch. Although I have a Matrix account I have had trouble getting friends/family to switch with me (mostly non-technical folks, and Signal was much stickier for them), it might be time to convince them to try again. Thanks to you and the team for all the hard work!

Interesting. I've turned quite a number of non-technical friends/family into Signal users, just by telling them, "Here's the messaging app I'm using if you want to talk to me..." without mention of encryption until they're already hooked. Uniformly comments have been favourable concerning ease-of-use and quality of voice/video calls (at least compared to what they're already used to -- generally Zoom or Skype), and s…

Oh definitely, my experience is similar. Sorry if I was unclear: by Signal being "stickier" than Matrix I meant that I've had better luck getting friends to continue using Signal than continue using Matrix. So far, anyway.

Re: Zoom Acquires Keybase

#329

Post by lgessler » Thu, May 07, 2020, 4:31 PM UTC

xiphias2 wrote: post #246

roblabla wrote: post #34

Keybase' post about the acquisition: 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…

,,helping to make Zoom even more secure. '' Wow, this means that keybase stuff thinks that Zoom is secure already. Zoom should have hired people who don't think that way.

Come on, the engineers at Keybase are serious crypto nuts. Give them some more credit

Re: Zoom Acquires Keybase

#330

Post by paramk » Thu, May 07, 2020, 4:33 PM UTC

Will this mean Keybase will be killed in the near future ?

From the blog

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 of notice.

So, our shortest-term directive is to significantly improve our security effectiveness, by working on a product that's that much bigger than Keybase. We can't be more specific than that, because we're just diving in.