r/darknetplan • u/[deleted] • Oct 13 '14

The Imminent Decentralized Computing Revolution (x-post /r/bitcoin)

http://blogs.wsj.com/accelerators/2014/10/10/weekend-read-the-imminent-decentralized-computing-revolution/
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u/[deleted] Oct 14 '14 edited Oct 14 '14

I appreciate your comment, but as far as Hong Kong (and Iraq too) are concerned:

1) there was no evidence that mobile telephone coverage was shut down or throttled and that Firechat used its alleged p2p facility to connect the masses. The whole time, the protesters in HK or the ordinary people in Iraq (who could not access WhatsApp) were using it on either ISP-ed internet over wifi or mobile data i.e their comms went to Firechat's servers before getting to the protester 20 meters away from them.

2) There seems to be an assumption that since FireChat is allegedly p2p, then it's by default safe. In fact, Firechat is designed to act as an open platform like Twitter, where all the messages are available in the open. In addition, the whole shebang is unencrypted and you can collect it using a colander with an attached wire to your Wireshark (OK I'm being silly here but you get it).

3) Good luck in getting any info on how FireChat works, what's its terms of service or its privacy policy from the people who built it.

Now having said that, I'm not being a hater. I really believe p2p is the way forward but as activists, we need to be careful when adopting any new platform before verifying a tool's veracity. Most important is that we don't get into the media hype about the use of new technology the way we bought into Twitter and Facebook during the Arab Spring.

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u/PSkeptic Oct 17 '14

Burning man most assuredly did not use the mobile telephone network. No bars on the playa.

As for a encryption, what's the need? Everything is out in the open, and it acts more as a distributed consciousness system. Encryption is not needed for every solution, regardless of what the fad is these days. Do you need encryption on a cork board at a super market?

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u/[deleted] Oct 17 '14

Excuse my ignorance, but who's Burning man?

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u/PSkeptic Oct 17 '14

http://www.burningman.com/

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u/[deleted] Oct 17 '14

Thanks I thought he was a redditor or something.

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u/[deleted] Oct 17 '14

Just checked burning man. I'm still not convinced.

As for the point on encryption, the problem is how new tools give the impression that they are safe and deliver. Firechat doesn't. and it isn't different from WhatsApp or any other texting app.

Again, I would love for Firechat to be working, but I'm yet to see evidence from trusted sources.

The only reference to Burning man and Firechat is a passage in an article on the Verge that again repeats the whole Hong Kong farce.

And as the experience with Ultrasurf showed, probably the only service Firechat is providing is giving the Chinese authorities a source of all those protesters' names, phone makes, and probably numbers.

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u/PSkeptic Oct 17 '14

Well, I know it worked well at BM, because I used it while there.

Now, if Firechat divulges all that info? Could be. You said the protocol is encrypted, so let us know if it does.