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Comment by client4 | Hacker News Reader

I still use Keybase and KBFS daily. It sounds like those services are around to stay -- but I hope if Zoom ever decides they don't want to keep running them anymore they spin it off to a non-profit to keep it running.

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The coolest use of KBFS I found is a zero code real time chat app. One person types

echo Hello >> /keybase/private/Alice,Bob/chat.txt

while the recipient types

tail -f /keybase/private/Alice,Bob/chat.txt

and it just works!

edit: end-to-end encrypted too!

Before keybase chat proper, I used tmux + bash to emulate a chat app that used kbfs as storage and transport medium: https://codeberg.org/kas/kbmsgr

It only ever was a proof-of-concept and I haven't touched it for years. It may not be working anymore.

I would make plans to migrate to an alternative service sooner rather than later. Zoom is shedding employees and clearly in a cost cutting mode. It's only a matter of time before someone does the math and realizes shutting down a few of these services will save some more money.

What alternative would you suggest? I really like Keybase and can't seem to find anything that covers the same functionality - been keeping an eye out since Zoom bought them.

Yeah it sucks there isn't anything 100% like it. For just simple file syncing with end to end encryption I like syncthing. For encrypted data in a git repo there are more DIY options like using sops or similar tools.

I use the free Resilio Sync tier to keep a shared fold in sync between several servers. It's worked incredibly well for the last decade, no issues at all.

You configure a secret token and all servers which know the token automatically sync via BitTorrent. You don't need to manage lists of server IDs like with syncthing, it's completely peer-to-peer.

The only one I've seen that comes close is https://keys.pub/ but it still misses a lot of what keybase gives (sigchains, etc.)

Previous HN thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22995792

Are there any others to consider? It's been quite sad to see Keybase so stifled after being acquired. :-(

Keybase Chat → Matrix

I'll miss coin flipping [0] dearly, though.

[0]: https://keybase.io/blog/cryptographic-coin-flipping

Keybase is too good to be true.

They probably need to charge close to $10/m just to break even for what you get for free.

I'd happily pay twice that if they would let me.

Me too. File synchronization is a key feature for my work.

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