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Comment by mike-cardwell | Hacker News Reader

This sounds like a worse version of https://www.surespot.me/

Surespot is open source (including the server software too), and doesn't charge you money for "advanced" features like sending images.

And surespot actually exists and is usable today.

Donate your money that way instead: https://www.surespot.me/contribute.html

(not affiliated, just a very happy user)

[EDIT] He details exactly how it works here: https://www.surespot.me/documents/how_surespot_works.html

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Or Gliph. Which is far slicker than all of those combined.

Although, not OS I believe, sadly.

https://gli.ph/

Co-founder of Gliph here, thanks for mentioning our work.

We understand that some folks require open source for their secure messaging, and encourage them to seek out solutions that provide that. We encourage more options overall for secure communications.

Gliph isn't just a secure messaging tool. Our mission is to help individuals transact with their peers in a trusted, efficient and delightful way.

Gliph is the easiest way to send Bitcoin, and the only app in the App Store that officially supports sending Bitcoin P2P.

Secure communication with strong privacy controls is a fundamental requirement to accomplish our goal.

I use Gliph pretty much daily, and have since I first read about it (on HN) almost a year ago. Great app.

that is awesome. thank you.

Openness is important, but it's not enough for success. People will use Hemlis because it looks pretty and because it's backed by Peter Sunde and the other TPB guys. Or maybe they won't, because all of their friends use Whatsapp.

If Surespot had group chat I might consider it. Do any of the privacy-focused messengers support encrypted group chats?

Can you please describe the target group of people who will need an ecnrypted group chat?

I'm asking because I've made secure alternative to e-mail ResoMail, but I don't see a large pool of users ready to switch to secure comunications.

People will emotionally react and download a beautiful secure app because privacy is a hot topic right now. The market could be quite large if opinion leaders use this app.

In my opinion, all private communication should be safe from eavesdroppers. For one on one chats, many applications implement encryption through OTR or PGP. I haven't found anything comparable for group chats, though.

I'm asking because I've made secure alternative to e-mail ResoMail, but I don't see a large pool of users ready to switch to secure comunications.

For me it's a matter of convenience and network effects. Do I have to enter a passphrase every time I send a message? Do I need yet another client for this proprietary IM network? Does the client implement the features I expect? As for your software, first of all, it's great that you're working on it. These are the questions that come to my mind:

What are the benefits of ResoMail compared to email + PGP? You should explain why it's necessary to break compatibility.

Can I trust it? People who really need cryptography will use software that they know is reliable, e.g. a version of GnuPG that has been audited by an expert. How do I know your implementation is secure? It's not enough to state that it's open source.

You say it's open source, but where is the source code?

Is the traditional email client UX still the best way to go? Is it accepted by users who grew up with Facebook and expect less friction?

also promising: http://kontalk.org/

It's only for android.

He's working on an iOS version too. Plus, it's open source so other people can write clients for other operating systems if they want.

[EDIT]: https://www.facebook.com/surespot/posts/614633905213667

26th June: "Just sent first successful surespot encrypted message from iPhone to Android."

It's open source. Fund it and it'll get ported to other platforms =)

I don't see how hemlis is worse though? It's even better since it's funded.

It's worse because:

  1.) It's not open source
  2.) They want to charge for certain features that are free in surespot.
      (on top of the $100k they're already asking for)
  3.) They wont let you run your own server

#1 and #3 does not make it worse. #2 might not either depending on what that feature is.

For an encryption app? I'd almost argue that not being able to access the source code makes it a non starter. There's no way to guarantee a lack of backdoors otherwise.

hemlis looks better though.

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