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Show HN: Privacy-Focused Alternative to Google Docs and Microsoft Word
- jmramos 7y agoInteresting! how are you planning to monetise it?
- Walterion 7y agoIt comes with 10GB free storage, but for more storage, the PLUS plan is needed. Also, we will provide specialized care and hosting for Enterprises.
- Walterion 7y agoAs we keep hearing about data breach news of big companies like Dropbox or WhatsApp, it is harder for us to keep trusting them with our file and personal data, and it made us think about finding a better way. We believe the best way to keep data secure is not having them in the first place. That's why we choose the server-less solution, in another word, blockchain. Here is a link to our launch on Product Hunt that was #1 of the day! You can find more info, images, and gifs there: https://www.producthunt.com/posts/arcane-docs https://www.producthunt.com/posts/arcane-docs Please hit me up with any question and I will be happy to answer.
- jammygit 7y agoHow does blockchain promote privacy? Doesn’t it just store the data in a decentralized, permanent way?
- ucaetano 7y ago> How does blockchain promote privacy? There are no privacy leaks when everything is public :)
- joeyrideout 7y agoTo piggyback on this question, does Arcane provide any forward secrecy?
- Walterion 7y agoEach of your documents has a different key generated from your private key and are encrypted in your private hub with ECDSA encryption. So no server can compromise your data.
- Walterion 7y agoWe use Blockstack for authentication. It is made on Bitcoin blockchain to store your private key that will be used to encrypt all of your stuff. Making the master key will be done just the first time, and after that, every file gets a new password from the master one. No matter what, all the files will be encrypted, so you always have control over your data — something like ProtonMail but for Office.
- vorpalhex 7y agoWhy are you storing a private key on a blockchain, where the primary purpose of a blockchain is universal visibility?
- Walterion 7y agoSurly they are encrypted. But I invite you to check Blockstack authentication and how it works.
- vorpalhex 7y agoWith what key are you encrypting someone else's private key? And who holds this master key? I would love it if you could link a technical deep dive into how Blockstack fundamentally works because I've gotten very few answers from both implementors and founders, and their existing documentation isn't at all helpful.
- Walterion 7y agoMaybe these help but let me know if you got any question https://docs.blockstack.org/faqs/allfaqs https://docs.blockstack.org/faqs/allfaqs
- jude- 7y agoYou (the user) hold the master key. It's generated for you when you sign up for a Blockstack ID. From there, the authenticator generates a per-ID, per-application key-pair via BIP32 -- each app key is a hardened child whose path is generated from the key that owns the ID on-chain and the hash of the application's DNS origin. Authentication happens completely client-side. The Blockstack authenticator registers itself as a protocol handler for the "blockstack:" protocol, such that when you click a sign-in button, you will be redirected to your locally-running authenticator (or to a hosted version of the same, if you don't have the authenticator installed). The authenticator stores your master key, and will derive the ID- and application-specific key-pair for you when you select the ID to sign in as. Once you sign in, the authenticator redirects you back to the application. The authenticator passes the app the Blockstack ID and application-specific private key via the URL string (encrypted with an ephemeral ECDSA key generated by the app on sign-in), and the blockstack.js library fetches and downloads the user's profile to learn the storage endpoint(s) as part of completing the sign-in. In so doing, the application learns the storage endpoint to which to GET and POST user data, and learns the key to use to sign/encrypt it and to authenticate to the user's preferred storage (access to which is mediated by a Gaia hub that the user selects when onboarding). Agreed that a deep dive with protocol diagrams would be handy. We're working on it! :)
- russdpale 7y agoWell for one no one can just query your Gaia data for anyone who wants to purchase your data..
- Walterion 7y agoYes your private key is needed for that, and that is encrypted and will not leave your browser at all without that.
- artfulhippo 7y agoJust a suggestion: Give users the option to hide the controls. You already let people hide the formatting, but in order for me to want to use this to write, I would need the ability to hide the top bar ie BACK TO LIST | HOME | ... | EXPORT & SHARE
- Walterion 7y agoThanks for your interest, I noted this, and I will talk with the designers ;) We will contact you when we update it.
- slater 7y ago"Sign in with Blockstack" - never heard of that, so won't be signing up. No way to provide sign-in with e-mail & pw? :(
- ocdtrekkie 7y agoI am really confused how it's supposed to be "decentralized" if you have to have a sign-in with a specific provider to use it. Can you log in if Blockstack-the-company goes down or has a technical issue?
- Walterion 7y agoYour identity is on the blockchain and that is decentralized so even in that case you or anyone can run a separate node to handle them. Also all the auth library is open source so anyone can work on that.
- russdpale 7y agoIts a distributed database, it doesn't matter if the blockstack company takes a long walk off of a short pier.
- Walterion 7y agoIt is free and will not take almost no special info, give it a try ;) The Blockstack auth with assure that your data is secure and encrypted
- slater 7y agoMany things are free to sign up for. Heck, I regularly sign up/join any Show HN-featured site. But there's zero reason for any site not to offer the tried-and-trusted email and password, even just as as a fallback option, especially these days where trust in online stuff is seemingly at an all-time low. Google, Facebook, et al., companies with massively larger, dedicated security departments swore up, down, and sideways that "everyone's data" is "secure" and "encrypted" ";)"
- sys_64738 7y agoI'll stick with iCloud.
- asynchrony 7y agoCan you provide any details as to how it will be free, scalable, and decentralized? The word blockchain doesn’t inspire my confidence.
- env123 7y agoIt's just a marketing ploy to entice the tech-challenged - you use fancy or obscure words to sweeten the icing on a cheap cake
- skrowl 7y agoDisclaimer: This statement is future-looking. If you use block-chain to empower machine learning you can enable your business to proactively think outside the box on all of your action items!
- benjaminbrodie 7y agoIf you are going to have icing why not make it sweet lol
- Walterion 7y agoSure :D
- Walterion 7y agoYou can find an answer in my other comments. If they were not enough, please let me know I will try to explain it more.
- Walterion 7y agoSure! We are using Blockstack for authentication; it is a platform to have your identity safe with the help of blockchain. Scalable? It is easier as all the works are done in the client-side, so no server pressure there, and your data will be stored on the storage provider of choice although we have a default one with 10GB free storage for all the news users. (Always encrypted!) In the future, we will provide extended options like self hosting for enterprises.
- omarhaneef 7y agoApp idea: iOS/Android/PC/MacOs/ipad/linux clients to encrypt/decrypt documents on Google Docs. Just encryption -- you don't need the whole blockchain. Not sure there is a way to do that with Google Docs, though. You need a layer between them. You can use Google Drive of course, but then the client has to come up with all the clever features Docs provides.
- SkyMarshal 7y agoThat would be interesting, especially if generalized to support lots of different storage options - Google Docs/Drive, Dropbox, Github gists, pastebin, etc.
- writepub 7y agoWhich office suite are the tools based on?
- progval 7y agoTitle text says "Blockchain-based alternative for Google Docs". GDPR mandates "right to be forgotten", which afaik isn't very compatible with how blockchains work. How do you deal with it?
- Walterion 7y agoThe encryption key is on the blockchain, but not your files, and you can choose whatever storage provider you want when you sign up. So you are free to remove all your fills, and they will be erased entirely, although they are heavily encrypted and you are the only person that have the keys.
- concert-gilled 7y ago> you can choose whatever storage provider you want when you sign up How do you do this? I just went through the sign up and I did not see any such option.
- russdpale 7y agoHow do you forget something that you do not know to begin with?
- craze3 7y agoI'm surprised of the amount of blockchain hate in the comments from people who haven't even checked out the product...
- Walterion 7y agoThanks! I was thinking the same, but it is reasonable to be defensive to new things. And it helps us to find out how we can provide better info for new users and welcome them more appropriately.
- russdpale 7y agoblockchain and silicon valley don't really play too nice together, which is why you see so much chain dev done outside of the valley in places like Seattle, NYC or Switzerland. SV is stuck in its silo's, content to be spymasters of their peers for the five eyes.
- SkyMarshal 7y agoSilicon Valley is one of the major hubs of blockchain development. And not everyone on HN is from SV.
- russdpale 7y agoNo, its really not compared to other places. What projects are you thinking of? There aren't as many SV people here as there used to be, but the community is still skewed that way.
- SkyMarshal 7y agoYes, it really is compared to other places. I don't have the time or energy to dig up a comprehensive list, but the tip of iceberg would be Berkeley & Stanford blockchain research groups, Blockstream (HQ in BA), Cosmos (engineering lead in SV), Dfinity (Palo Alto, SanFran, Zurich), Protocol Labs (IPFS, Filecoin, HQ in SV), O(1) Labs (HQ in SV). Just a small sample of some of the highest quality technical projects in the industry. And several of the largest cryptocurrency VC funds are based there - A16Z Crypto, Paradigm, Polychain, Metastable Capital, and a bunch of others. SV's tech industry is far from dominated by blockchain as it may be in other places, which may make blockchain seem relatively small there. But it's a bigger and more robust scene than most other places. https://cbr.stanford.edu/ https://cbr.stanford.edu/ https://simons.berkeley.edu/workshops/proofs2019-boot-camp https://simons.berkeley.edu/workshops/proofs2019-boot-camp (berkeley has several sites, not sure which best to link, but their speciality is in Zero Knowledge crypto applied to blockchain)
- rememberlenny 7y agoI would like to see a preview before signing up. Is that possible based on the current app structure? Being someone who is working on building a text editor myself, I know how many small details make or break the user experience. While the privacy focus is nice, I won't sacrifice the user experience. Proving that the app state is up to par would be an instant factor to make me switch.
- Walterion 7y agoThe signing up process is simple and free and will not get any unnecessary info, give it a try ;)
- russdpale 7y agoI click the login with blockstack button and nothing happens. <pre> TypeError: "e is undefined" a base64url.js:17 o base64url.js:14 mounted Redirect.vue:69 VueJS 11 cd49 main.ts:9 Webpack 6 </pre>