312

The creator of Pixelfed announced an upcoming encrypted messenger for the fediverse that will work across the fediverse (mastodon.social)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by maegul@lemmy.ml to c/fediverse@lemmy.ml

27 comments fedilink hide all child comments

URL seems to be wrong ... here's the correct URL

cross-posted from: https://merv.news/post/82405

It will be open source, end to end encrypted using Signal’s double ratchet encryption protocol, and he plans to make it easy for fediverse platforms to integrate it. The beta will release later this month.

He’s also the creator of https://fedidb.org btw

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] ComfortablyGlum@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 year ago

Because I have no knowledge or understanding of programing, can someone please eli5 how an open source program can remain encrypted and secure? Is it just a matter of good faith that jerks won't mess with it or does the encryption programming itself have protections?

[-] TheLordlessBard@sh.itjust.works 13 points 1 year ago

From my understanding, open source encryption is actually better for privacy than closed source, since then you can have external auditors. Basically, encryption is doing a TON of math involving prime numbers, so even if you know the algorithms used, you still won't be able to figure out what the secret (or password) is without using inordinate amounts of computing power.

For more reading, check out Kerkchoff's Principle

[-] ken27238@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago

without using inordinate amounts of computing power.

which is one of the big things behind quantum computing. we will (will, not might) get to a point where QCs can do the math to crack RSA/other large prime-based encryption standards.