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Comment by faeyanpiraat | Hacker News Reader

App seems to be using this: https://libsodium.gitbook.io/doc/secret-key_cryptography/aea...

I have little experience with cryptography, and have no idea whether it is a good choice or not.

If it is, how would you convince regular people that the state of the art “something something sodium chachacha” crypto algorithm in the app is the best for them?

It might be better not to mention the name.

Some stats would be nice, like: your files would take X years to decrypt if stolen (backed by some trusted sources).

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> App seems to be using this: https://libsodium.gitbook.io/doc/secret-key_cryptography/aea...

> I have little experience with cryptography, and have no idea whether it is a good choice or not.

libsodium is from DJB & Tanja Lange, it doesn't get better/more trusted than that without preferring to trust some state entity of choice. (For some reason ranging from regulatory requirement to hopelessly misguided.)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_J._Bernstein#Cryptogr...

But yeah, average user doesn't care. It probably doesn't belong on the front page unless this intends only to target a security conscious audience.

> If it is, how would you convince regular people that the state of the art “something something sodium chachacha” crypto algorithm in the app is the best for them?

Personally, I'd make a separate page with more details for the subset of folks who are interested. It doesn't need to be on the main page, but at least something to reassure technical users that the project hasn't rolled it's own DIY crypto would help. :)

(And yes, libsodium is a great choice.)

You could have "state-of-the-art cryptography algorithm" as a link to a page with more details. Or just put the name of the algorithm in brackets afterwards, e.g. "state-of-the-art cryptography algorithm (ChaCha blah AES blah)".

I see. Should've been more concrete about this.

libsodium is a solid choice.

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