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But even if Moxie does something weird or some country breaks Signal. You and your contacts can easier switch to another system. While when your XMPP server ad
by tehabe 10y ago
But even if Moxie does something weird or some country breaks Signal. You and your contacts can easier switch to another system.
While when your XMPP server admin does something weird or a country breaks it you are locked in.
For Signal you use an ID which is not owned by Signal. So for Signal and alike the decentralisation doesn't come from the service but from your own social graph which is your phone book on your smartphone.
Moxie explained it much better I think.
https://whispersystems.org/blog/contact-discovery/ https://whispersystems.org/blog/contact-discovery/
- nine_k 10y agoIs mobile number portability a thing in every country? I suspect that relying on IDs owned by another system can have its drawbacks. Maybe it's not likely that an entire country is forced to change phone numbers. It's still possible to lose a number for various reasons (most entirely benign). An oppressive government could definitely disrupt communication of suspects by forcing the phone company(-ies) to terminate their contracts and unlist their numbers. (But IDs being piggy-backed to a different system which is not easily disrupted on a mass scale does have some advantages, too.)
- tehabe 10y agoGood question, also it was only a remark that the phone number or email address is not owned by the IM system. They can change anyway. I got my mobile number in 1999 and already switched twice with the number. Sadly it is kinda expensive to take the number with you, 25 to 30 euros.