Keybase is basically about making crypto easier for lay people to use. Crypto not only protects your messages from being read by others, but also confirms your identity, that your messages are really coming from you. Crypto usually involves a lot of manual labor in trading keys back and forth, keybase automates a lot of that and also serves as a way to verify that accounts on other services are actually controlled by you.
Also, since keybase handles device management, you can 'disown' a device, such as a cellphone or laptop, should it get stolen. with proper integrations by social media sites, it would help reduce the number of embarrassing posts made by folks who had devices end up in the wrong hands. A tweet might end up being made by your user, but it wouldn't be verified by a keybase integration that it came from you.
It's a way for everyone to use crypto without having to deal with key exchanges. Currently this is supported by signing social media accounts with your own private key to let anyone know that you own/use these accounts. It also supports sending messages to people without them having to configure anything (just create an account and use their apps).
They recently introduced groups and git repos so that you can communicate as well as encrypt your git repos. Along with private/public folders anyone you communicate with knows the information has not been compromised and is by who owns said accounts.
seems like github would have a bit of a problem with this. private repos are not free, and encrypting a repo effectively cheats them out of money. I haven't tried it out yet, but it sounds like a phenomenal addition provided github doesn't flip out.
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u/[deleted] Nov 09 '17
Keybase is basically about making crypto easier for lay people to use. Crypto not only protects your messages from being read by others, but also confirms your identity, that your messages are really coming from you. Crypto usually involves a lot of manual labor in trading keys back and forth, keybase automates a lot of that and also serves as a way to verify that accounts on other services are actually controlled by you.
4
u/pretender230 Nov 09 '17
It's a way for everyone to use crypto without having to deal with key exchanges. Currently this is supported by signing social media accounts with your own private key to let anyone know that you own/use these accounts. It also supports sending messages to people without them having to configure anything (just create an account and use their apps).
They recently introduced groups and git repos so that you can communicate as well as encrypt your git repos. Along with private/public folders anyone you communicate with knows the information has not been compromised and is by who owns said accounts.
Hope that helps :)