[HN Gopher] Show HN: Beacon - a new open-source privacy and secu...
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Show HN: Beacon - a new open-source privacy and security-focused
browser
Author : ca98am79
Score : 33 points
Date : 2021-12-14 16:51 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (impervious.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (impervious.com)
| tmikaeld wrote:
| Hm, how does this work with that iOS always run browsers using
| Safari webview?
|
| Doesn't this need a native browser implementation for the
| handshake and p2p to be secure?
| buffrr wrote:
| It uses WKNavigationDelegate[0] it allows responding to
| authentication challenges by accepting/rejecting certificates
| or continuing with default handling. This is used to do
| certificate pinning. DS records are stored on chain and
| requested via the P2P client. The DS record is used to verify
| DNSSEC and to obtain a certificate hash/TLSA record.
|
| [0]
| https://developer.apple.com/documentation/webkit/wknavigatio...
| DyslexicAtheist wrote:
| paging @tptacek (really hope there is more on DNSSEC in your
| upcoming SCW episodes because clearly the world needs it)
|
| I was out the moment I read the project bets on DNSSEC/DANE (a
| bad idea because why would you put CA logic into DNS) on top of a
| terrible idea (Ethereum).
| mrtweetyhack wrote:
| All I need is ad block, dark mode, video download and I am sold.
| neurotrace wrote:
| Seems like the link ought to point here:
| https://impervious.com/beacon
| ca98am79 wrote:
| whoops, you are right - thanks! I will resubmit
| skyfaller wrote:
| "Handshake leverages a blockchain based on unspent transaction
| output (UTXO) and proof-of-work (PoW) similar to Bitcoin for
| naming capabilities." This means it intentionally wastes energy
| by design, which means its environmental impact is not
| acceptable, no matter what their FAQ says.
|
| Saying that you can mine proof-of-work tokens with green energy
| is a red herring, since:
|
| - Some miners are clearly re-establishing previously closed
| fossil fuel power plants to meet their energy needs:
| https://www.bostonherald.com/2021/10/17/bitcoin-miners-resur...
| We can argue about the frequency of this, but it is undeniably
| happening.
|
| - It will be hard to establish the true amount of fossil fuels
| used, since miners steal power when they can:
| https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/may/28/police-fi...
| See also the attacks on CI platforms to steal CPU cycles:
| https://drewdevault.com/2021/04/26/Cryptocurrency-is-a-disas...
|
| - Installing green energy itself causes emissions:
| https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2015/04/how-sustainable-is...
| That means there's a hard limit to how much green energy you can
| install without causing catastrophic warming. Well before that
| hard limit, you reach a point where the additional emissions
| created by installing green energy sources are more than they can
| pay off before deadlines like 2030 or 2050, which means they are
| serving as carbon sources rather than carbon sinks in the
| relevant timeframe. In other words, they are accelerating the
| climate crisis rather than slowing it down.
|
| - Total energy use may matter more than the percentage of
| renewable energy, since if the absolute amount of fossil fuels
| increases the emissions from burning fossil fuels will increase:
| https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2009/11/renewable-energy-is-...
|
| - The internet as currently designed may use too much energy, so
| switching to a system that uses even more energy by design is
| probably a bad idea:
| https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2015/10/can-the-internet-r...
|
| Yes I am obsessed with Low-Tech Magazine, but they have lots of
| citations and I could easily find less nerdy sources.
| ComputerGuru wrote:
| I think the title needs to say "iOS" in there.
| ca98am79 wrote:
| thanks, android and desktop versions coming soon!
| readonthegoapp wrote:
| so, it's a beacon, making _you_ a beacon, so advertisers can see
| you wherever you are?
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_beacon
| jlund-molfese wrote:
| No. The nomenclature criticism on Show HN submissions is
| usually a stretch. A beacon helps you navigate or locate
| things, and that's intuitive enough.
| ca98am79 wrote:
| Hi! My company Impervious released this browser today. It is the
| first browser with native DANE support, meaning zero-trust
| HTTPS/TLS for Handshake domains.
| prdonahue wrote:
| Can you share data on how much latency this adds to TTFB?
| buffrr wrote:
| Something to consider in the future is implementing
| RFC9102[0] which is an experimental TLS extension for
| embedding the DNSSEC chain this should significantly improve
| TTFB. It'll still need to request the DS record/trust anchor
| from the p2p client.
|
| [0] https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9102.html
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(page generated 2021-12-14 23:01 UTC)