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Comment by VariousPrograms | Hacker News Reader

I’m happy with Proton products personally but I see so many feature requests from users sitting for years on their core products. If anything I feel like the effort that goes into this instead could hurt Proton by branding them as “a crypto company”.

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We most certainly are not a crypto company. We don't run a crypto exchange, didn't create a cryptocurrency, and don't speculate in crypto. We're an encryption company, but don't lump that in with crypto.

Care to explain how you ignored the results of your survey where most users wanted more email or calendar features and you decided to work on an AI assistant that more than 66% of your user base didn't ask for?

I really like to know this as well. What lack of transparancy indeed.

They clearly already had the features mostly done when they made the survey. I recall the questions being extremely leading to get people to say they would like to use a privacy first AI or whatever. After I took it I immediately told people it was clear they were about to announce some AI bloat.

You surely are turning into one which as a long time paying user, this is a real shame that you're putting most of your loyal users under the bus.

One Bitcoin wallet among a suite of privacy offers doesn't mean they are turning into one and I disagree they are throwing most of their loyal users under the bus.

You ever heard of the word "enshittification"? I'm sure you have.

This is what they're on the road to. AI last week, crypto this week. Maybe NFT next week?

In all seriousness, this has the potential in killing their brand image as a viable alternative to Big Tech and considering there's not much email alternatives aside from self hosting (which is a nightmare in its own right), this is worrying.

One is an AI feature that you have to opt-in to, and includes the option to run locally.

The other is an optional self-custody wallet. They’re not an exchange and your wallet/Funds aren’t locked in with them.

They’re offering alternatives to big tech solutions which is kind of what they do.

The text of the blog post is interesting. Bitcoin does not offer privacy. But the post is written using bitcoin maximalist phrases, not just crypto in general.

So who's the huge HODLer in the company?

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