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And yet almost nobody who uses irc uses it, unlike omemo (xmpp) and olm (matrix). Its encryption also predates matrix by a decade, its dh prime is only 1.5k bits big.

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Is anyone using IRC for private conversations? I only see it being used for public chat rooms where every message is even getting recorded to a public archive; it's one of the rare cases of a messaging system where people have nearly zero concern for privacy. (I'm all for having the option of course, just pointing out a cultural reason why e2ee wouldn't have much uptake since nobody cares)

I responded to that in another message but yes, many people do. Either via direct messages or small private channels.

But even if they didn't, there would be no reason not to move their public conversations to the protocol that they use for direct messages.

True, people on IRC usually don't mind conversations being public. Check out OTRv4 though, they are working on modernizing the encryption: https://bugs.otr.im/otrv4/otrv4

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