Thank you, Keybase, for buying us a family dinner

[tobyaw]

I’ve been using Keybase for years, most recently as a way to transfer things like Azure and AWS credentials to partner organisations. Back in 2019 they added some kind of cryptocurrency wallet to their app as part of a deal with Stellar, and in doing so furnished all of their users with some XLM Lumens. At the time, around £50 worth. I happily took the handout and, with little interest in cryptocurrencies, happily ignored it.

But when I opened the app earlier this month I noticed that my wallet was worth nearer £420, which is a sum to pay attention to. I figured out how to transfer the Lumens to Coinbase and from there into pounds in my Monzo account. And then £400 into savings, and the remaining £20 into pizza via Papa John’s.

Comments

[andrewducker]

Sadly it's not a "please enter some data you've probably lost" issue. It's a "Here is an error message that means nothing except to a developer" issue.

It accepts my username/password, asks for a device name and then says "signing_kid *long hex string* not found".

Less than entirely useful.

[tobyaw]

Sounds like a support issue. I wonder if Keybase have any support. It’s not as if we’re paying customers. Actually, how _do_ they make money? Now I’m worried that I’ve been using a service that I’m not paying for, so does that make me the product? Who are they selling my data to?!?

Ah, they were bought by Zoom last year. Does that make the situation better or worse?

[andrewducker]

There doesn't seem to be any support (I went and checked).

They recommend joining a public group to get some.

You can't do that if you don't have the app...

(And yes, I agree, how do they make money?)