I've been a fan of Keybase for a while as a way to play with encryption technology. They provide simple ways to encrypt messages and confirm digital signatures. If you trust them to look after your keys then their site can encrypt and sign too. The other facility they have always offered is a way to verify your identity by putting signed messages onto various sites and services to prove you control those accounts. This is about as good a proof as we can have given that it is not technically viable to fake this. You can see that I'm verified for a few things. I just wish there was a way to do this for a Steemit account.
A while back they added cloud storage. You get 10GB for free, but it's more powerful than some other services. You can have public files and I used this for my Steemit images before they hosted them for us. You can also have secure storage that can be shared with selected people. The files are encrypted so that Keybase cannot access them. If you share then your client re-encrypts to allow that person access.
They have clients for all platforms (although Android at least cannot access the files yet). The client provides encrypted chat with other users. Again, this is end to end encryption. If you want to talk to anyone then you can send a message using their Twitter or some other ID and they will get it when they sign up and confirm they control that account. The client adds a button to sites to make this easy.
The latest new feature is Keybase Teams, which is something like Slack or Steemit Chat, except that it's all encrypted so that only participants can ever see what went on. Their software is all open source, so people can check for back doors.
Image from the Keybase site.
I've not been able to try this yet, but it looks very cool. I have used the file storage and chat. I just like the control that encryption gives us. We can choose who gets to see anything. Of course everything has limitations. You can't stop a person you share with from passing on the secrets and your government may be able to threaten you with imprisonment if you do not allow them access.
This is geeky stuff, but I think it's worth investigating. If you join Keybase then you know where to find me. A couple of people on Steemit already connected with me on Keybase.
If you want to play then the block at the end of this post is signed and can be checked here. I used gpg rather than Keybase to sign this as Keybase does not have my private key.
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-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
This is to confirm that user steevc on Steemit controls this encryption key.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1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=Z0ns
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
Big Ron (Wolves LUG) used to always send his emails in PGP.
What a complete PITA. :-D
Show me someone who doesn't have a PGP key and I'll show you someone who's fibbing about their FOSS credibility." Bwahahaha
I've played with this stuff for years, but never found that many people who use it. I did manage to get to some keysigning events, but my latest key is only signed by me. I tried signing emails, but those to my local LUG list got mangled somehow so that the sig was invalid. I think it's just too technical for most people.
Looks useful! Good to know ;) I have to say that I don't have many things that I want/need to share encrypted, but never say never and I love to try new tools ^_^
more techy stuff.. well later when I catch up with all the other techy stuff ...Lol
I don't expect everyone to be into this, but it's useful technology. You know what I like
It's nice to know your options :) never knew about these guy's, for now I am supplied with all the software and tools I need. However, every now and then you have to look critically at what you are using and if there is a better, faster or safer way. Next time I will do this, and their name pops up in a google search, i definetly will feel trusted.
I think Keybase will grow much larger when more and more people adopt a digital way of life, so to speak.
This one's useful, Steve. Thanks.
Today is the first time I have heard keybase.io. Looking for more information about it, I see your post. Thank you for your sharing.
Do you know any place where we can verify id based on a blockchain?
Keybase can verify on Bitcoin and Zcoin
I know that. But I am looking for something like Blockstack.org. Unluckily, they don't launch their product yet. Thanks
nice to learn about using encryption in a practical way
It is interesting, it is necessary to look more closely
nice post and stuff tools.