from Hacker News

The public alpha of the Blockstack Browser

by chadyj on 11/6/17, 2:58 PM with 6 comments

  • by 45h34jh53k4j on 11/6/17, 3:30 PM

    What is this? it wants an email address without saying what it is.

    Have we forgotten that people actually want to know what things are these days? Oh just hand over your data suckers, it doesnt matter what its for, we just want your essence.

    Go away!

  • by EGreg on 11/6/17, 3:30 PM

    Can someone please respond to this comment with, what are the MAIN UX stories for this browser? What does the user actually DO in the real world that they couldn't do otherwise on the Web?

    I accessed this on a mobile phone. There's no mobile version? OK.

    First of all Web site asks me to choose a secure root password. That seems like a big oxymoron. I have to trust Blockstack! They might be saving my password. I understand the same could be said of a random app but that's what I feel whenever I enter a password on a website - I know I am about to post it to a server somewhere, I need the internet to do that.

    Secondly, what do I need a password for, if I am generating private keys? My guess is, it is used to generate those private keys from the password and some random data, and giving me that long phrase to save in a safe place. But then why not JUST have random data as a seed?

    Anyway. So now I signed up and I have to choose storage. I suppose they will store info on the server of my choice, encrypted. Is this like the Solid project from Tim Berners-Lee? Apps that run in the browser, but save stuff on the server you choose? And they use your private key to sign your changes?

    Then I finally got to the Blockstack app page. Most of the "apps in progress" don't actually do anything. The TODO app took me to a page that doesn't size for mobile, where I clicked the central button and it said Safari doesn't recognize this request.

    So what do I do now, if I am on mobile?

  • by EvanKnowles on 11/6/17, 5:22 PM

    I just clicked continue about 10 000 times and I still have no idea what this is.