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Bleep… Bittorrent unveils serverless & encrypted chat client

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Renegade:
Looks like communications are about to be decentralised.  :Thmbsup:

https://torrentfreak.com/bleep-bittorrent-unveils-serverless-chat-client-140730/

Encrypted Internet traffic surged worldwide after the Snowden revelations, with several developers releasing new tools to enable people to better protect their privacy.

Today BitTorrent Inc. contributes with the release of BitTorrent Bleep, a communication tool that allows people to exchange information without the need for any central servers. Combined with state of the art end-to-end encryption, the company sees Bleep as the ideal tool to evade government snooping.

Bleep’s main advantage over some other encrypted messaging applications is the absence of central servers. This means that there are no logs stored, all metadata goes through other peers in the network.

“Many messaging apps are advertising privacy and security by offering end-to-end encryption for messages. But when it comes to handling metadata, they are still leaving their users exposed,” BitTorrent’s Farid Fadaie explains.

“We reimagined how modern messaging should work. Our platform enables us to offer features in Bleep that are unique and meaningfully different from what is currently available.”
--- End quote ---

More at the link.



http://blog.bittorrent.com/2014/07/30/bittorrents-chat-client-unveiled-bittorrent-bleep-now-in-invite-only-pre-alpha/

BitTorrent’s Chat Client Unveiled: BitTorrent Bleep Now in Invite Only Pre-Alpha

Speak Freely – It’s Person to Person.

The BitTorrent Bleep Pre-Alpha will be available on Windows desktop to start. Easy to use, Bleep offers freedom to communicate over text and voice, person to person.

Hoping for early access to BitTorrent’s first serverless chat client? We have good news. Today, we will begin letting testers try out the Pre-Alpha. We are also unveiling its name: BitTorrent Bleep.

Why Bleep, you might ask? Well, basically, we never see your messages or metadata. As far as we’re concerned, anything you say is “bleep” to us.

And with the susceptibility of communications platforms to snooping and hacking, reminders of which seems to surface every week, we realized that we were uniquely qualified to build a better platform and application.
--- End quote ---

More at that link.

In other news, the NSA has redesignated the name of its largest surveillance division "Whack-A-Mole". :P 8)

Deozaan:
Cool!

But if there's no central server, how does the client know where to find other peers?

Renegade:
Cool!

But if there's no central server, how does the client know where to find other peers?
-Deozaan (August 02, 2014, 02:27 PM)
--- End quote ---

It's P2P, so it's using peers to communicate that information.

All of that can be cryptographically and securely done.

This actually seems a bit similar to Bitmessage, although there are significant differences. This seems like a bit better solution for chatting.

40hz:
Dunno...Tor was supposed to be untraceable. Torrents were supposed to be anonymous. Certain crypto algorithms were supposed to be uncrackable. SSL was actually supposed to be secure. Random numbers were supposed to be random....

I think I'll give it a year or so to see if some security researcher doesn't figure out a way to compromise it.

And even if somebody doesn't find a way to crack it, there's always that little issue with the hardware we all use...

I suspect that if something like Bleep really does prove to be more than a nuisance to those it's pointed at, it will only be a matter of time before chip manufacturers are required to secretly incorporate mechanisms into their firmware and silicon to deal with it - assuming they're not in there already. And since fabricating a modern CPU is beyond the capabilities of even the best funded Kickstarter or Indigogo campaign, that should give the surveillance gnomes another fifteen or twenty years worth of unchallenged omniscience to wallow in...

Here's the real problem as I see it: we are running programs on machines engineered and built by the largest "in bed with the government" corporations in the world; 90% of which are running an operating system known to be compromised; on a network controlled by the governments of the world; over wired connections and radio waves monitored by the governments of the world (and their corporate allies).

Not to discourage people for trying (because it's important that they do) but seriously - who is kidding who?

It's not the governments and the corporations that are playing Whack-a-Mole when it comes to stuff like this.

We are.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note:

Again: This is not a technical problem. It is a people problem. People problems can't be fixed by simply applying some technology.

We need to stop trying to take the easy way out by hoping for a cheap technical fix. We need to sit down, address, and ultimately deal with the real problem here. That's the only way this is ever going to be resolved.

IMHO, things like Bleep mainly serve as a distraction to keep us from dealing with the real problem.

Y'know...if I were in power, I'd probably covertly be encouraging efforts like Bleep and Tor. And the more, the better. It defuses some of the geek outrage - and ties up some very smart and dedicated people (and money) who might otherwise be causing all kinds of problems for me. So let all these brainy types (most of whom will do anything to avoid dealing with an actual person) code to their heart's content. Because in this scenario, the only thing better than my opposition not having a good solution, is having them put their trust in a broken one...
 

Renegade:
Again: This is not a technical problem. It is a people problem. People problems can't be fixed by simply applying some technology.
-40hz (August 03, 2014, 07:59 AM)
--- End quote ---

Yup. It's never a tool problem. It's ALWAYS a people problem. e.g. Guns, booze, drugs, etc.

And even if somebody doesn't find a way to crack it, there's always that little issue with the hardware we all use...

I suspect that if something like Bleep really does prove to be more than a nuisance to those it's pointed at, it will only be a matter of time before chip manufacturers are required to secretly incorporate mechanisms into their firmware and silicon to deal with it - assuming they're not in there already. And since fabricating a modern CPU is beyond the capabilities of even the best funded Kickstarter or Indigogo campaign, that should give the surveillance gnomes another fifteen or twenty years worth of unchallenged omniscience to wallow in...

Here's the real problem as I see it: we are running programs on machines engineered and built by the largest "in bed with the government" corporations in the world; 90% of which are running an operating system known to be compromised; on a network controlled by the governments of the world; over wired connections and radio waves monitored by the governments of the world (and their corporate allies).
-40hz (August 03, 2014, 07:59 AM)
--- End quote ---

e.g. Freescale is drooling over tracking chips and "The Internet of Things" (IoT).

IoT is the end of privacy if the tools are controled by psychopathic control freaks.

There are some great things that you can do with IoT, but... do you trust the people who will deliver it or regulate it?

Cryptography is the art of not trusting anyone.

We are fools if we trust them.

It's not the governments and the corporations that are playing Whack-a-Mole when it comes to stuff like this.

We are.
-40hz (August 03, 2014, 07:59 AM)
--- End quote ---

I hope you are wrong.

IMHO, things like Bleep mainly serve as a distraction to keep us from dealing with the real problem.
-40hz (August 03, 2014, 07:59 AM)
--- End quote ---

All the more reason to adopt proven trustless environments and get rid of government entirely.



Like that.

Y'know...if I were in power, I'd probably covertly be encouraging efforts like Bleep and Tor. And the more, the better. It defuses some of the geek outrage - and ties up some very smart and dedicated people (and money) who might otherwise be causing all kinds of problems for me. So let all these brainy types (most of whom will do anything to avoid dealing with an actual person) code to their heart's content. Because in this scenario, the only thing better than my opposition not having a good solution, is having them put their trust in a broken one...
-40hz (August 03, 2014, 07:59 AM)
--- End quote ---

I so hope you are wrong. That's just utterly depressing.

I'm still hopeful and cheering for the cryptoanarchists out there.

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