I wish the Iranian ppl had access to a better messaging app. WhatsApp isn’t working.
Discussion
They do. Briar is perfect for them.
Internet blocks unfortunately make everything inaccessible.
Why not use nostr?
Been trying to figure out how they can use it so I can share it over there. I’m not tech savvy, I just want to help.
What is with Session?
Forget Session. Uses a shitcoin in the background. Use SimpleX Chat
Good to know
Also, no Perfect Forward Secrecy.
I like Matrix/Element best.
Issue with matrix is lots of meta data leakage. SimpleX is a better solution in the long-term because they do a good job of limiting how much servers know about you.
Except the user would have to download orbot to make sure that the servers aren't censored. There needs to be a proper solution where they don't need extra tools to get it working.
Exactly.
Hence Briar - https://briarproject.org
The issue with Briar is that they don't have accesible clients on all platforms. Session has its problems but in terms of combatting censorship for everyone it's probably the best right now.
Best practice for people in Iran is Pixel phone with GrapheneOS and using Briar
So are you saying that internet access is completely cutoff?
Peer-to-peer encrypted messaging and forums
Messages are stored securely on your device, not in the cloud
Connect directly with nearby contacts - no Internet access required
Briar works via bluetooth, local wifi and internet. So internet block you can still use bluetooth and local wifi. No server needed.
Signal proxies are also available.
I’m sorry I’m not tech savvy so this is probably a dumb question, but how could local Wi-Fi work if internet is blocked?
Same as your home network. Your pc can still talk to your phone if they are on the same wifi network. They just need internet if they are talking via a server. Briar does not use a server.
https://briarproject.org/how-it-works/
explains it better
Something like this might help to get to the whats app (or any) web app
can they access the pirate bay or similar and then a torrent with the website address for iris or something as an onion address, then said torrent also has firefox-esr wrapped as the tor browser, or similar, and then connect over tor ??
someone needs to get on this ...seed a nostr torrent of the above. of course, with a firefox compatible vpn plugin already synched up in the build dir, for the least amount of thinking possible. (near zero conf)
#[4]
#[5]
@
are Signal, Element, Telegram not options?
Telegram gets blocked. My family uses it though.
Telegram is terrible
Agreed
Terrigram.
….I’ll see myself out
#[4] , but somehow useful in practice, what would be better decentralized alternative for file sharing messaging app? Can nostr suport large files?
Definitely not safe
Yeah in a lot of cases. I've stop use it long time now.
Was odd to me that Telegram was the preferred network here v Signal. I just thought it was because you could have a username v give your number on Telegram.
I mainly use Signal (I convinced my family to use it). I have Telegram, but rarely open the app
I mainly use Telegram (I convinced my family to use it). I have Signal, but rarely open the app
Yeah it's irritating that all of the nostr communities are on telegram
Maybe it’s time for nostr communities to… chat on nostr? Is it in the cards for Damus to support public and private group chats? #[8]
Would def move / mirror our telegram group chat over to Nostr.
Had support for that but people complained the chat view was confused so i removed it
I think so too. Unfor looking to github reveals that public and private group chats still need a quite lot of work. So they might not work until long time - like a month 🤣
Keen to see this, maybe in a separate app? I think it could steal market share from slack and discord, there groups just want simple team/group chats.
* where
Something like this? https://thearcapp.com
Needs a lot of improvements.
I dig it. 😯😲
I don’t know what it is, but I dig it. 😌🤙
Something like, yes. I’m running the TestFlight build, but it seems to have stagnated.
Anigma is a telegram style client on nostr, but pretty sure it had security issues re: keys being leaked or something along those lines
anigma is a most definitely a scam. it leaks your privkey on *purpose* and overrides your lightning address
If that’s true, then it’s unfortunate that nostr.com is apparently built on Anigma?
If you go to anigma it does show a disclaimer at the top telling you not to use a private key you aren’t comfortable leaking. I’m curious why they would put that disclaimer up there and not just fix the issue.
Looks to be #[10] repository on GitHub. He’s only on 3 relays here so not sure he’ll see this.
The creator quit supporting it after a bunch of security vulnerabilities. It's a shame, but this is voluntarism warts and all. https://twitter.com/super_testnet/status/1604973673836056576
Afaik the creator was not a javascript front end expert.... it was vanilla js in page and a fun experiment. I don't think it was intended as a scam.
All solutions are temporary until we can keep our private keys truly secure instead of having to input them into clients.
More people should checkout NIP-49, encrypted private key import/export. So far the only client I know that implements this is the Gossip client by #[13] Worth checking it out.
It's fairly trivial to fix anigma: escape innerhtml and implement window.nostr, so that it doesn't need to store any private keys. I'm not sure why no one has done it, maybe I'll do it this weekend.
rogue code can still decrypt your dms if the plugin is set to auto-decrypt
how would it override a lightning address? :|
Does anigma only leak if you are attached to it?
time for someone to make a better client? :D
this is one of the features yes. Also it is banned in some countries while Signal is not. This tells me everything 🤣
Ah Signal had really poor quality compared to Telegram going back about 5-6 years. Also recall that Signal wasn't well funded at the time either, it was barely scraping by.
Telegram really hit massive traction in the 2017 Crypto ICO Boom period when all the chatter swarmed there, along with a ton of hyip scams
Sucks that people don't get this or get it and don't care
I’ve heard, just figured it might be better than no options.
altho…
?cid=2154d3d78g9924341avs10lek36mzllyndtmzulg1i90bs2v&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g
Good alt?
Signal’s not much better
Pourquoi?
I wonder what #[6] uses?
he's one of the co-founders of Signal[ but he does use nostr...
Ah, thanks! I wonder what the perceived problems are?
co-founded by the NSA as well and uses phone numbers, leaks metadata
Mmmmmm I always had this voice in my head saying its not so private if they need your number for the initial setup. Later on found out the link with certain intelligence agencies ...and my suspicions were confirmed....Thank you for that info, so many ppl falling in this trap still....
this doesnt mean its no good. all they can get is the meta data. you could also use a burner number or free online number just for this purpose
You’re telling me it was co-founded by #[6] and the NSA?
yes this is public information
Fantastic. Please share if you can.
Entertaining, thanks. I also didn’t know that Elon Musk is a spy.
Do you have a reputable source with evidential backing? That might be more helpful.
The Snowden leaks were a good model, I’m surprised he’s not blown the whistle on this one - out of character!
Signal was co-developed by the NSA
it’s very convenient and feature rich. also they monetize it well. but it is a corporate product with all the consequences. my account got limited because of spambots adding me to their groups and me trashing these groups. unfair
Telegram said it’s encrypted, but reality is not.
Is Zion legit? Just d/l it this morning, having an account setup issue, but I'm curious.
Signal 🤙
keet
Ah. Sorry. What about signal, same issues there?
doesnt vpn help with geo-block?
VPNs haven’t been working there for a long time. It works sometimes doesn’t work others.
i can imagine ppl not wanting to use it then. draws even more attention if it's not consistently working. situation sucks man.
Yep, it sucks…. I feel so helpless being in the us, I don’t know what to do, but I want to help.
Depends on the protocols you use. But yeah, for non techies it’s a non-trivial task.
Can you get briar or session?
Try simple X messenger
so true! i’m so frustrated with the fact that lots of people don’t realise the importance of this.
for me it’s so obvious that access to information has a snowball effect and will lead to liberation in the future! and Iranian people deserve liberty as much as everyone else ❤️🩹
SimpleX Chat might work for them.
How about using Tor Snowflake and accessing a messenger via web? I have the proxy extension running and have multiple people use it every day.
Thank you for this. I do wonder if the authorities there would still be able to track down protesters on there?
Session or Briar is honestly a better solution in this case
read my other responses about thus
I don't believe session or Briar can be blocked because they use several anonymous relays to connect
Signal doesn't work there?
Iran blocked access to signals servers. The only way they would be able to connect is using a proxy.
Session and Briar are 2 different from Signal messaging applications. Session may be using Signal's encryption protocol, but that does not mean it uses Signal's servers.
And as I know, Signal has implemented a way for iranians to still be able to connect to Signal. It uses proxies, which imo are not that hard connecting to. https://signal.org/blog/run-a-proxy/
Send money through monero on the Cakewallet or Monero GUI. Fully private and anonymous money!!
I recently tried Keet a P2P messaging that uses E2E encryption and doesn't require phone numbers or emails. Users can create unique room links to access their chats. They have mentioned btc lightning support in the future.
It also has a nice user interface but yeah someone should create a Nostr-based E2E Encrypted personal/group chat client that would be great.
how’s keybase? just heard about it, open source, seems legit?
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/keybase-crypto-for-everyone/id1044461770
?cid=2154d3d7e7bocm6egmuf5r4fgl784zy5ckvfgk8g9ll4pryx&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g
Come to me? 🇨🇭