Hello!  I'm currently working on an alternative to Signal and Telegram that is built on top of the Signal protocol with some things changed.  Everything, including the server side code, will be open source.  The project currently has the name "Paranoid" but I'm not sure if it will stick.

I was wondering if there was anything you all dislike about the apps you currently use that I could fix in my application.  All suggestions I will take, but please note that this is mainly just a project for fun and not to actually create a real product.  Thank you!

Can you show some roadmap to understand what you already have and what can be fixed?

systemctl start breached

actually i do not really have any issue with signal...

(September 16, 2022, 09:51 AM)Gustav0x Wrote: Can you show some roadmap to understand what you already have and what can be fixed?

At the moment, I've only started the server side code. It was originally written in Java but I exchanged it out for Golang and I'm rewriting it, hoping for faster speeds with key exchange.  

Please note I am just one developer, and I am the only one working on this project currently so speeds on how fast things come out are directly dictated by how much free time I have to work, so don't expect fast updates.

I considered making my own chat application a few years ago but never finished it because I don't think there's any reason to reinvent the wheel 100 times over.

What will you app/program do that is not already done by an existing project?
How will you attract users especially at the beginning where there's little trust or incentive to move to a new platform?
Will everyone have to self host their own server or will there be an existing hub for everyone to connect to?

Not trying to take away from the project since it could be a good learning experience/coding project, just trying to bring up some points that you may need to consider.

(September 16, 2022, 06:35 PM)DataDumper Wrote: I considered making my own chat application a few years ago but never finished it because I don't think there's any reason to reinvent the wheel 100 times over.

What will you app/program do that is not already done by an existing project?
How will you attract users especially at the beginning where there's little trust or incentive to move to a new platform?
Will everyone have to self host their own server or will there be an existing hub for everyone to connect to?

Not trying to take away from the project since it could be a good learning experience/coding project, just trying to bring up some points that you may need to consider.

I agree, there are so many IMs and there really isn't a reason to work on your own. For me, it really is just a programming project. It started with me wanting to rewrite the Signal Server in Go and now I decided to just create my own project. 

Q: What will you app/program do that is not already done by an existing project?

A: Nothing really. Like you said in the outro, it is just a programming project. Though, I do hope to make the key exchange in OpenWhisper faster, not sure how well that will go though.  

Q: How will you attract users especially at the beginning where there's little trust or incentive to move to a new platform?

A: Would you rather use a forum ran by fellow hackers or a forum that was ran by a large company. That was kind of the intial idea. 

Q: Will everyone have to self host their own server or will there be an existing hub for everyone to connect to?

A: There will be a centralized domain for people who just want to do general chatting but for people that don't even trust our security, they can run their own server!

Thank you for the interest. I really don't expect this to blow up at all. As you mentioned, it's really just a programming project to pass time and see if I can learn anything in the realm of cryptography.  I appreciate all of the feedback, and I agree that there is a lot I need to consider if I want to pursue this as an actual application.

(September 17, 2022, 12:57 AM)cup Wrote:

(September 16, 2022, 06:35 PM)DataDumper Wrote: I considered making my own chat application a few years ago but never finished it because I don't think there's any reason to reinvent the wheel 100 times over.

What will you app/program do that is not already done by an existing project?
How will you attract users especially at the beginning where there's little trust or incentive to move to a new platform?
Will everyone have to self host their own server or will there be an existing hub for everyone to connect to?

Not trying to take away from the project since it could be a good learning experience/coding project, just trying to bring up some points that you may need to consider.

I agree, there are so many IMs and there really isn't a reason to work on your own. For me, it really is just a programming project. It started with me wanting to rewrite the Signal Server in Go and now I decided to just create my own project. 

Q: What will you app/program do that is not already done by an existing project?

A: Nothing really. Like you said in the outro, it is just a programming project. Though, I do hope to make the key exchange in OpenWhisper faster, not sure how well that will go though.  

Q: How will you attract users especially at the beginning where there's little trust or incentive to move to a new platform?

A: Would you rather use a forum ran by fellow hackers or a forum that was ran by a large company. That was kind of the intial idea. 

Q: Will everyone have to self host their own server or will there be an existing hub for everyone to connect to?

A: There will be a centralized domain for people who just want to do general chatting but for people that don't even trust our security, they can run their own server!

Thank you for the interest. I really don't expect this to blow up at all. As you mentioned, it's really just a programming project to pass time and see if I can learn anything in the realm of cryptography.  I appreciate all of the feedback, and I agree that there is a lot I need to consider if I want to pursue this as an actual application.

Something I don't like about both apps? Phone number requirements. (Signal even shows your number)

To my knowledge signal has no native Linux support so defo that

i like session more than signal one reason session doesn't need your phone number @max

here's some links
documentation https://docs.oxen.io/products-built-on-oxen/session
whitepaper https://arxiv.org/pdf/2002.04609.pdf
github https://github.com/oxen-io

(September 17, 2022, 01:20 AM)nbit Wrote: i like session more than signal one reason session doesn't need your phone number @max

here's some links
documentation https://docs.oxen.io/products-built-on-oxen/session
whitepaper https://arxiv.org/pdf/2002.04609.pdf
github https://github.com/oxen-io

Interesting, I'll look into it. Thanks.