@Aaron 😂😂😂😂😂 the irony burns
@jerry @Aaron@boringpeople.org what we really need is a way to securely send e-mail.
People will continue to send e-mail. There is no way this goes away antime soon. People will send sensitive stuff via e-mail.
We can spend time discussing just how exactly people should not use e-mail, or we can build a system that works.
I like the ideas behind PEP and AutoCrypt. I'd like to see them implemented in more clients.
@jerry @rysiek @Aaron
I have a feeling that right now, SMTP has the biggest adoption of all federated messagning protocols, and the second place is far far behind. Of all the new communication protocols I've seen recently, they're either popular, or federated, not both. And trying to get your new protocol adopted not just by people for their private communications, but also by companies, govts, and orgs for their internal and external communication is going to be extremely hard.
@Wolf480pl @jerry @Aaron@boringpeople.org there is some hope in the p2p world.
BitTorrent is not exactly a "messaging" protocol, but got immensely popular.
FireChat, a p2p messaging app, got very popular during protests in Romania. Sadly it's proprietary, so I'd stay far away from it.
Briar doesn't need any introduction in this group, methinks, but is not popular at all... yet.
But, messaging and e-mail are two different things. It's not just about sending the message. It's about the infra around it.
@rysiek @Wolf480pl @jerry @Aaron I'd like to add Tox to this list.
It's freesoftware with multiple GUIs, and is quite similar to Briar. Except they do allow adding remote contacts (though sharing the pubkeyhashes to do so may not be practical for most), and they've made superficially different protocol decisions.
@alcinnz @Wolf480pl @jerry @Aaron@boringpeople.org I agree Tox is interesting. PLayed wth it ~3 years ago, even used it quite extensively.
But usability was a problem. And battery drain on mobile. Plus there were some security issues I'm sure they fixed since.
Has Tox undergone an audit?
@rysiek @Wolf480pl @jerry @Aaron I don't know about these security issues, and I haven't heard of any auditing (though I am interested in any).
And I mostly just use my laptop, so I didn't notice those battery issues.
Wish I could be more informative.
@alcinnz @Wolf480pl @jerry @Aaron@boringpeople.org sexurity issue:
https://github.com/TokTok/c-toxcore/issues/426
Talk about audit:
https://github.com/irungentoo/toxcore/issues/121
@rysiek @Wolf480pl @jerry @Aaron Wow I'm finding it difficult to quite comprehand the conversation there, but I'll be more cautious about recommending it.
At the same time I don't know what I'd recommend instead. I like the freesoftware p2p, but Briar doesn't appear to fit my usecase (besides I'd prefer a smaller codebase to audit, it looks quite bloated).
Maybe I'll lean more on Matrix or XMPP? But then a loose the metadata encryption I'd love to play with.
@alcinnz @Wolf480pl @jerry @Aaron@boringpeople.org I think you could go Matrix. Heard good things about it.
Also RetroShare seems interesting, but also bloated.
I am not concerned about Briar's codebase. People working on it are as solid as they come, and Briar went through an audit already. More problematic is the model of establishing contact, which requires physical presence or a common friend. I like how secure it is, but I understand how annoying it might be at times.
For me personally Briar looks good.
@Wolf480pl @rysiek @jerry @Aaron I do kind-of have questions about Matrix. From a distance it kind-of looks like they decided to reimplement XMPP with the latest fashion of JSON. And I still have to explore it's encryption situation.
As for SSB I'm starting to look into it, particularly with Git-SSB. And from what I've seen, the tech looks very elegant when dealing with group comms or reliability despite the clients. Though again I have to look at the encryption again.
@alcinnz @Wolf480pl @jerry @Aaron@boringpeople.org I'd love to hear your thoughts on SSB once you dive into it a bit more.
@Wolf480pl @rysiek @jerry @Aaron Practically I'll happily use anything e2e encrypted (and unhappily anything else), but I will explain my ideal messenger.
First off I'm aware that the routing metadata is quite sensitive information, and am keen on seeing ways to encrypt it.
And second while I by no means think everything should be p2p, I do think messaging should be. This comes down to a concern that unless given a practical reason otherwise I worry everyone will use the same server.
@alcinnz @Wolf480pl @jerry @Aaron@boringpeople.org agreed. e2e, p2p, metadata hidden.
I like the approach of Briar and Ricochet, i.e. going via the Tor network. That's a good start. And with the improvements in the speed of hidden services lately potentially makes it possible to even have audio/video calls.
@rysiek @Wolf480pl @jerry @Aaron Oooh, Ricochet. From what little I've looked up about it, I'll be sure to check it out!
@alcinnz @Wolf480pl @jerry @Aaron@boringpeople.org aye, please do!
It's a bit dated codebase, no work apparently done for the last 2 years or. Still, working just fine.
@Wolf480pl @alcinnz @jerry @Aaron@boringpeople.org ah, SSB, forgot about it. Serverless (like Briar, Tox, RetroShare), so it might be super-interesting.
@rysiek @Wolf480pl @jerry @Aaron I'd by no means discourage others from Briar, it looks like a useful tool. It's just not for any usecases I can foresee myself having.
As for the personal auditing, it's something I like to make a habit of. Not that I seriously trust myself to catch many or any issues, but nor do I trust enough auditing is done. And I be no means trust myself with auditting crypto, the most I really can do is say "yeah, that kinda looks like crypto". I'm glad you trust the devs.
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@rysiek @alcinnz @jerry @Aaron
I'm not a fan of Matrix. From what I've heard, they have a terrible server implementation, and nobody else tries to make their own implementation because Matrix changes the s2s protocol too often.
Also, I've heard there's a thing called Secure Scuttlebutt, haven't looked into it, but it may be relevant here.