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Given the security concerns around Zoom, and the apparent lack of QC that might have prevented those concerns, this news is appalling. I love Keybase, it's use

Given the security concerns around Zoom, and the apparent lack of QC that might have prevented those concerns, this news is appalling. I love Keybase, it's used by many people, but I suspect it will now die a quick death. More accurately I suspect it will slide into a coma - not quite dead, but not in wide use anymore either.

coldpie 6y ago
Yeah holy crap. I've been a big fan of Keybase since they launched, but this is a deathknell. I guess I'm not too surprised, Keybase didn't seem to have a business model, but still, disappointing that they're going to go into death this way. Attention people starting businesses: VC funding is fun and all, but please, have a business model. Your users and employees depend on it.
- epanchin 6y ago
  While honourable advice, the bottom line is Keybase sold without having a business model. So perhaps better advice is, start a business even if you don’t have a plan and someone may buy it anyway.
  - floren 6y ago
    The plan was to get acquired. As much as I've liked Keybase the product, their steadfast refusal to ever come up with a way to make money has always made me suspect they were doing the typical Silicon Valley thing: just burn funding until a bigger company notices and buys you.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
  - monadic2 6y ago
    > So perhaps better advice is, start a business even if you don’t have a plan and someone may buy it anyway. A better world for your personal pocketbook maybe, but certainly a worse world for the rest of us. I wouldn't characterize that as "better" in any general sense.
- falcolas 6y ago
  Sometimes, acquihire is the business model. It makes money for the VCs and money for the founders. It's just the fools^wconsumers who bought in early (and the non-essential employees) who get the shaft.
- _Microft 6y ago
  What's our business model, how are we making money? Umm... don't ask me - I'm just the founder! The sad thing is that you need to remind people of it. I would never start a business without an idea of a viable business model for it. What do they expect? Growing until they are too large to fail and then ... Godot arrives and everything is fine?
  - icebraining 6y ago
    They expect to get bought. And they were right.
ithkuil 6y ago
why not look at the problem the other way around? I don't have much respect for zoom's security practices, while I do have much respect for the keybase team. Perhaps this is Zoom's way of admitting that there is no way they can just solve the problem internally by keeping doing what they're doing and they need to get some fresh blood and build upon good practices designed outside their current culture.
- munchbunny 6y ago
  In general, when it's between fresh blood and old management, old management will win every time. If Zoom is acquiring Keybase because the C-suite is pivoting culture around security, then it'll probably work. Otherwise, not much will change. So until I see more evidence that Zoom's upper management had a change of heart (creating a CISO council is a good start), I'm going to be skeptical that this will actually move the needle.
- geerlingguy 6y ago
  I'll take what you're drinking ;-)
- andrepd 6y ago
  Then why acquire? Why not just hire as a consultant?
  - dcow 6y ago
    Because keybase obviously needs money and zoom has a lot of it right now..
    - mpweiher 6y ago
      That, and this is probably in large part a marketing/PR move. Public perception of zoom/security is "beyond horrible", thus visibly spending lots of money on an acquisition of a very well respected name in security helps them polish that image at least a little. And who knows, maybe they'll even work on actually improving security. Always the hopeless romantic/optimist, me. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
geerlingguy 6y ago
Yeah for the few people in the world who actually used Keybase and understood (at least partially) why it was a neat thing... most of those people are also those who have been following the Zoom debacle, and will likely consider abandoning the platform.
- searchableguy 6y ago
  Might not be significant part of keybase and bots don't need privacy. ;)
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
bitexploder 6y ago
Even as an information security practitioner that cares a great deal about privacy I am just not willing to jump on this "Zoom is bad" band wagon. "Zoom is bad" is a tech media narrative largely driven by the large players that have something to gain by seeing Zoom stumble. There may be QC concerns, but in general the product has been great for our team and our consensus was to give them some time. Their response has been positive and they seem to have handled it transparently. Reality says this: Zoom works well enough. When we started using it several years ago it was far ahead of the competitors. Maybe they are catching up? Anyhow, I will give Zoom a chance to do the right thing over the next 6-12 months regarding Keybase, and their product in general.

coldpie 6y ago

Yeah holy crap. I've been a big fan of Keybase since they launched, but this is a deathknell. I guess I'm not too surprised, Keybase didn't seem to have a business model, but still, disappointing that they're going to go into death this way. Attention people starting businesses: VC funding is fun and all, but please, have a business model. Your users and employees depend on it.

epanchin 6y ago
While honourable advice, the bottom line is Keybase sold without having a business model. So perhaps better advice is, start a business even if you don’t have a plan and someone may buy it anyway.
- floren 6y ago
  The plan was to get acquired. As much as I've liked Keybase the product, their steadfast refusal to ever come up with a way to make money has always made me suspect they were doing the typical Silicon Valley thing: just burn funding until a bigger company notices and buys you.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
- monadic2 6y ago
  > So perhaps better advice is, start a business even if you don’t have a plan and someone may buy it anyway. A better world for your personal pocketbook maybe, but certainly a worse world for the rest of us. I wouldn't characterize that as "better" in any general sense.
falcolas 6y ago
Sometimes, acquihire is the business model. It makes money for the VCs and money for the founders. It's just the fools^wconsumers who bought in early (and the non-essential employees) who get the shaft.
_Microft 6y ago
What's our business model, how are we making money? Umm... don't ask me - I'm just the founder! The sad thing is that you need to remind people of it. I would never start a business without an idea of a viable business model for it. What do they expect? Growing until they are too large to fail and then ... Godot arrives and everything is fine?
- icebraining 6y ago
  They expect to get bought. And they were right.

ithkuil 6y ago

why not look at the problem the other way around? I don't have much respect for zoom's security practices, while I do have much respect for the keybase team. Perhaps this is Zoom's way of admitting that there is no way they can just solve the problem internally by keeping doing what they're doing and they need to get some fresh blood and build upon good practices designed outside their current culture.

munchbunny 6y ago
In general, when it's between fresh blood and old management, old management will win every time. If Zoom is acquiring Keybase because the C-suite is pivoting culture around security, then it'll probably work. Otherwise, not much will change. So until I see more evidence that Zoom's upper management had a change of heart (creating a CISO council is a good start), I'm going to be skeptical that this will actually move the needle.
geerlingguy 6y ago
I'll take what you're drinking ;-)
andrepd 6y ago
Then why acquire? Why not just hire as a consultant?
- dcow 6y ago
  Because keybase obviously needs money and zoom has a lot of it right now..
  - mpweiher 6y ago
    That, and this is probably in large part a marketing/PR move. Public perception of zoom/security is "beyond horrible", thus visibly spending lots of money on an acquisition of a very well respected name in security helps them polish that image at least a little. And who knows, maybe they'll even work on actually improving security. Always the hopeless romantic/optimist, me. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

geerlingguy 6y ago

Yeah for the few people in the world who actually used Keybase and understood (at least partially) why it was a neat thing... most of those people are also those who have been following the Zoom debacle, and will likely consider abandoning the platform.

searchableguy 6y ago
Might not be significant part of keybase and bots don't need privacy. ;)

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

bitexploder 6y ago

Even as an information security practitioner that cares a great deal about privacy I am just not willing to jump on this "Zoom is bad" band wagon. "Zoom is bad" is a tech media narrative largely driven by the large players that have something to gain by seeing Zoom stumble. There may be QC concerns, but in general the product has been great for our team and our consensus was to give them some time. Their response has been positive and they seem to have handled it transparently. Reality says this: Zoom works well enough. When we started using it several years ago it was far ahead of the competitors. Maybe they are catching up? Anyhow, I will give Zoom a chance to do the right thing over the next 6-12 months regarding Keybase, and their product in general.