> Now, there exists a minority of extremely technical computer user for which Signal is a nonstarter (because you need a smartphone and valid phone number to enroll in the first place).
> there presently isn’t really a good recommendation for private messaging that meets their constraints.
If nothing is recommended, fine, but it's simplistic to not recommend or even consider the 3-4 apps that don't have those limitations. If you didn't have time to investigate or couldn't find anything else, say so.
That's interesting - it turned out markets, as distorted by Obamacare and so on as they are, weren't off by a lot.
He couldn't find services he needed and decided to build it himself. But after many years of trying he couldn't build a sustaining biz that provided such service.
They say don't roll your own encryption protocol (if something similar or same already exists and it's maintained), but these guys just can't resist.
Using a secure decentralized messenger to share a download (or upload) location on a Hidden S3 Service or one of those decentralized S3 services can't possibly be worse than this.
To commenter in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40289777: BitMessage doesn't solve anything, it uses broadcast and Bitcoin peer nodes that first get the message know where it came from. And BitMessage is not an illegal content hazard of any kind (what a ridiculous statement!).
In other words, Nostr can't do almost anything that matters.
> First, I want a replication strategy.
xx Network has message replication built in.
> Third, someone needs to delete some of these NIPS.
xx Network lets you delete messages.
> Fourth, it needs a dedicated blob store protocol.
For blobs, clients should be able to plug in to any 3rd party blob storage (e.g. Crust Network). This secondary storage is needed only for large attachments and isn't strictly required in messaging.
If you think about it, you could upload large attachments anywhere and send links in messages. Look how Teams or Outlook work with One Drive.
- Signal has stated they'll withdraw from the EU rather than cooperate
- That means the app won't exist in the official EU app stores (iOS, etc.). Users will have to load the app on their own (which 95% of users won't do)
- Next, because Signal is no longer providing services, Signal's EU gateways will not be operational. Now your messages are encrypted, but I've no idea if your Signal connects at all, and where (Signal gateways in some Five Eyes country, perhaps?).
tldr; you're still leaking metadata, and now to a country that has no obligation to not track your metadata (your IP, when you sent message, who received message around the same time, etc).
My suggestion would be get a proper decentralized messenger rather than spend time on these workarounds of questionable value.
I always get down-voted for "shilling", so I won't even make any suggestions this time. DYOD!