If you had a reliable Chrome zero day you wanted to burn to pop my dumb laptop (zero-day crypto challenges!), delivering it via a link to the new "Cryptodog" on a thread about Cryptocat would be a really funny way to own me up.
The code's all on Github: https://github.com/Cryptodog/cryptodog. No signed extensions or apps yet, but you can clone and run locally for testing purposes, or use the hosted client linked there.
So far, we've been focusing on refactoring, fixing surface bugs, and making the UI more attractive and intuitive -- none of the underlying cryptography has been touched. It also performs slightly faster than stock Cryptocat. Since Nadim took down his XMPP server, we've had to create our own, but the backend is identical to his setup.
Of course, Cryptodog is by no means the best solution for E2E chat, just as Cryptocat wasn't. The best we can hope to achieve without a complete codebase overhaul is a reasonable level of security (https://leastauthority.com/static/publications/LeastAuthorit...). However, it's still a fairly usable app that can afford casual users protection against basic threats, like corporate data mining.
Issue postings, pull requests, and other miscellaneous contributions are all welcome.
I don't speak for Least Authority (and don't currently work for them).
I can't figure out why follow the path of fixing cryptocat instead of joining with a more promising project (take your pick, they're a ton). Anyway, I was about to tell tptacek that he fell for a troll, and the real new project was Cryptolion...
Cryptodog is very much a casual project, not an all-encompassing fix for inherent design flaws. I offer it here only as an alternative for former users of Cryptocat who were content with the app.
P.S. Your guess is inaccurate, I am not the GP. HN staff might be able to verify this if it concerns you.