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ricochet-im / ricochet

Anonymous peer-to-peer instant messaging
https://ricochet.im/
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Please @special do something #600

Open cypherbits opened 5 years ago

cypherbits commented 5 years ago

Ricochet is used by many people, please, update the project. It's just a few hours of work. @special @s-rah

eleanor-em commented 5 years ago

@mhatta I don't have the authority to do that within the organisation, but if you're interested in contributing on a regular basis shoot Suelette an email at suelette@blueprintforfreespeech!

suelette commented 4 years ago

Blueprint is putting out a pre-release of Ricochet Refreshed for MacOS that incorporates the latest version of Tor. There’s more detail here: ricochetrefresh.net. This is our first step toward making Ricochet safer. It’s a pre-release so expect bumps.

Why are we working on this? Because this software provides unobserved, secure and easy-to-use connections between sources and journalists – right now, today. Supporting and protecting this vulnerable relationship is a core part of what Blueprint for Free Speech does.

Ricochet is fully-functional, security-audited, already-deployed software currently being used by people today. Updating the Tor version it uses is a critical first step. But there are also other straightforward, necessary improvements to be made.

Ricochet does what it does simply, but well - and reliably. It's pretty amazing it still works after such a period of time without improvements.

Other explorations and hypothetical tendrils are interesting, and we’re always open to discussing them for the future. There are good reasons for exploring things for later. But we’re putting our energies in to refreshing something that is used – and useful - right now, because to us, that’s the most sensible priority.

If you’re interested, do please join us. You are most welcome! We’re happy to have people on board who want to come be part of this (and thank you to those who have already been contacting us and helping out!). Watch this space ..

s-rah commented 4 years ago

I'm glad you are "open to discussing them for the future" - but, quite frankly, that future was 2 years ago. The space has moved on. The landscape has changed.

Because this software provides unobserved, secure and easy-to-use connections between sources and journalists Other explorations and hypothetical tendrils

Let me be explicit here, for fear of being misunderstood.

I've already provided a list of a number of issues with the old ricochet protocol & application. Moving to v3 onions completely changes the security assumptions around authentication, simplifies peer management and provides a noticeable speed boost. Adding group support likewise does the same. Open Privacy has done all that work.

Cwtch is the result of that, it is working software with an active base of users and volunteers, a better security model, built on top of v3 onions with group chat & android support (all that exists today in, again, working software)- it has been designed with those use cases in mind, by a team with the technical experience & expertise to deliver in this space for the communities who need this technology, securely.

To see that work described as "hypothetical tendrils", and to effort being poured into repeating work already complete for the sake of reviving software which was already slated for a rewrite is disheartening (to be polite).

And that is neglecting to mention Briar, which has also done a lot of important work in this space, who also have working software and who have also been plugging away in this space solving the problems that arise when extending these protocols beyond where they were in 2016.

Invest energies where you want, that's the beauty of decentralized tech, but from my perspective (which I would hope would count for something, given the time, money & soul I've put into this space over the last several years) ricochetrefreshed represents a step backwards (in security, in UX, in practically every way) to the detriment of the communities that rely on this kind of software.

suelette commented 4 years ago

We've just created a pre-release for Linux, tested on Ubuntu 18.04. We have included the latest version of Tor 0.3.5.8 in the pre-release.
It's at ricochetrefresh.net. Thank you to everyone who has pitched in to make it happen - we're making good progress. Enjoy!