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> I myself mostly use the following features from Keybase: Chat, KBFS, Git repositories and encrypting messages sent out-of-band via PGP in Keybase (and the var

> I myself mostly use the following features from Keybase: Chat, KBFS, Git repositories and encrypting messages sent out-of-band via PGP in Keybase (and the various cryptographic tools [signing, validation etc]) While all these features are individually nice, I kinda started to worry about Keybase as a product when they started bolting on stuff like this. I think the key (pun intended) to stable & ongoing success in this space is to focus on doing one thing well. Keybase was incepted as a service for signing & validation. There's currently https://keys.pub https://keys.pub for that. I'd be interested to hear if there's others. For chat, there's a lot of competitors to choose from. I like Riot.im. For KBFS, Tresorit has been mentioned. I signed up, but haven't been super impressed with their clients yet. I'm not sure what better options are out there.

ceejayoz 7y ago
None of these really worried me. The Stellar airdrop was my "oh shit" moment.
- lucideer 7y ago
  These worried me. Then the airdrop panicked me! :)
- geerlingguy 7y ago
  "Going crypto" is the new 'jumping the shark'.
  - spurgu 7y ago
    Then again "crypto" is what Keybase is all about.
- baby 7y ago
  I can picture them being "OK I want to implement some cool cryptography stuff right now, what about a cryptocurrency wallet? Like that we can even get some funding". Honestly I would have done the same stuff, I don't see why people are mad, it doesn't make the product less good.
- ece 7y ago
  This, and not adding 2FA of any kind on the website.
novok 7y ago
I feel like they were making a general secure E2E 'corporate team software' kit, with a focus on software dev. Storage, chat, git, etc. But then they forgot to charge money :( For corps especially, they want to be able to pay money so they can get support and SLAs. But keybase files have always had somewhat bad performance and undefined storage limits, so you couldn't rely on it as a company. It was always the biggest confusion point about keybase for me. If keybase charged money, would they have been more successful? The social network / device & key management stuff they started with I considered their original startup idea that they pivoted from.
- morpheuskafka 7y ago
  Agreed. I was really impressed with the software quality for an all-FOSS team, but it wasn't quite good enough for enterprise, and without charging money it won't ever happen. I wonder what if any features besides for the core crypto code Zoom will try to adapt. They are after all a rapidly growing enterprise app and I could see chat or file sharing being added.
  - baby 7y ago
    > and without charging money it won't ever happen they got to do some pretty cool stuff and just exited pretty nicely joining a company that is on the rise. I'd say that's a success. Being in the field that's pretty much what I wish I could do whenever I'll start a startup.
oefrha 7y ago
The key differentiator of Keybase (at least back when I joined during early alpha) is that it links identities across different web properties, so that one can easily find someone’s personal site(s) or profiles on other platforms with cryptographic certainty. AFIACT this crucial aspect is missing from keys.pub.
- 1f60c 7y ago
  > easily find someone’s personal site(s) or profiles on other platforms with cryptographic certainty I always thought it was meant the other way around: if you know someone from HN, you just have to look them up on Keybase and you can talk to them.
- simonebrunozzi 7y ago
  I wasn't familiar with this acronym, so I looked it up. AFAICT = As Far As I Can Tell. You switched two letters.
  - zdragnar 7y ago
    I missed that on the first read, and you reminded me on the concept called typoglycemia, which I did noy know until just now was actually an urban legend meme that apparently is true enough: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typoglycemia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typoglycemia
divbzero 7y ago
HN discussion about https://keys.pub https://keys.pub from two weeks ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22995792 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22995792
kellytrinh 7y ago
On Tresorit side, I've been with them for many years (when they were just starting out they were decently generous on free allowances and gatherfathered across). Client is so-so (more stable than KBFS to be honest) but the service is very costly and I would rather a BYOB (bring your own backend) approach using some other product...
baby 7y ago
> when they started bolting on stuff like this I was not necessarily worried, but it's true that it's nice to have a tool that does a few simple things. keys.pub looks like it's doing this.

ceejayoz 7y ago

None of these really worried me. The Stellar airdrop was my "oh shit" moment.

lucideer 7y ago
These worried me. Then the airdrop panicked me! :)
geerlingguy 7y ago
"Going crypto" is the new 'jumping the shark'.
- spurgu 7y ago
  Then again "crypto" is what Keybase is all about.
baby 7y ago
I can picture them being "OK I want to implement some cool cryptography stuff right now, what about a cryptocurrency wallet? Like that we can even get some funding". Honestly I would have done the same stuff, I don't see why people are mad, it doesn't make the product less good.
ece 7y ago
This, and not adding 2FA of any kind on the website.

novok 7y ago

I feel like they were making a general secure E2E 'corporate team software' kit, with a focus on software dev. Storage, chat, git, etc. But then they forgot to charge money :( For corps especially, they want to be able to pay money so they can get support and SLAs. But keybase files have always had somewhat bad performance and undefined storage limits, so you couldn't rely on it as a company. It was always the biggest confusion point about keybase for me. If keybase charged money, would they have been more successful? The social network / device & key management stuff they started with I considered their original startup idea that they pivoted from.

morpheuskafka 7y ago
Agreed. I was really impressed with the software quality for an all-FOSS team, but it wasn't quite good enough for enterprise, and without charging money it won't ever happen. I wonder what if any features besides for the core crypto code Zoom will try to adapt. They are after all a rapidly growing enterprise app and I could see chat or file sharing being added.
- baby 7y ago
  > and without charging money it won't ever happen they got to do some pretty cool stuff and just exited pretty nicely joining a company that is on the rise. I'd say that's a success. Being in the field that's pretty much what I wish I could do whenever I'll start a startup.

oefrha 7y ago

The key differentiator of Keybase (at least back when I joined during early alpha) is that it links identities across different web properties, so that one can easily find someone’s personal site(s) or profiles on other platforms with cryptographic certainty. AFIACT this crucial aspect is missing from keys.pub.

1f60c 7y ago
> easily find someone’s personal site(s) or profiles on other platforms with cryptographic certainty I always thought it was meant the other way around: if you know someone from HN, you just have to look them up on Keybase and you can talk to them.
simonebrunozzi 7y ago
I wasn't familiar with this acronym, so I looked it up. AFAICT = As Far As I Can Tell. You switched two letters.
- zdragnar 7y ago
  I missed that on the first read, and you reminded me on the concept called typoglycemia, which I did noy know until just now was actually an urban legend meme that apparently is true enough: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typoglycemia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typoglycemia

divbzero 7y ago

HN discussion about https://keys.pub https://keys.pub from two weeks ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22995792 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22995792

kellytrinh 7y ago

On Tresorit side, I've been with them for many years (when they were just starting out they were decently generous on free allowances and gatherfathered across). Client is so-so (more stable than KBFS to be honest) but the service is very costly and I would rather a BYOB (bring your own backend) approach using some other product...

baby 7y ago

> when they started bolting on stuff like this I was not necessarily worried, but it's true that it's nice to have a tool that does a few simple things. keys.pub looks like it's doing this.