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Show HN: Working on a Zero-Knowledge Daily Journaling App

98 pointsby tony_codesover 2 years ago
Decryption key derived from master password never leaves the browser. It's just a text editor so far, but a we have a few features planned: retrospective tooling, sentiment analysis, journaling modules, guidance and information inline, better habit formation & rewards UI.

31 comments

The_Colonelover 2 years ago
I&#x27;ve worked on 2 &quot;zero-knowledge&quot; apps (basically meaning all data is encrypted&#x2F;decrypted on the client) and I would advise against it:<p>* most consumers have no idea what you&#x27;re talking about &#x2F; don&#x27;t care<p>* those who know what &quot;zero trust&quot; is, also know that it&#x27;s not really trustless. You do have to trust the company that it will never send the password or plaintext data back to the server. Checking this on a continuous basis is essentially impossible, a rogue update can be pushed anytime. The amount of trust you need to put into the company is not dramatically different from a normal setup. I think psychologically it&#x27;s also a bit self-defeating - promoting zero-trust aspect somehow suggests that customers shouldn&#x27;t trust you.<p>* the design is a major pain, since you never know what surprises await you in the customer&#x27;s data (data tends to rot). Data migration to a newer version is a pain since you can migrate only when the user logs in, which can be years later (in effect you need to keep backwards compatibility forever). Debugging such customer migration problems blindly is hell.<p>* there will be useful features which you won&#x27;t be able to implement without violating the zero knowledge principle. Chances are that many users would place a higher value on those features rather than on the zero knowledge aspect.<p>If you really want to decrypt&#x2F;encrypt on the client, then try to minimize them - no encrypted structures, just encrypted text &#x2F; images &#x2F; whatever payload. Metadata, keys etc. can remain plaintext and thus accessible for your maintenance needs.
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petesergeantover 2 years ago
I&#x27;ve been journaling for about 15 years now. The big key to getting consistent at it was to stop worrying about trying to write a lot, or trying to write something insightful, and just write a sentence or two at a minimum. Often, that turns into more or into something insightful.
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thalassophobiaover 2 years ago
Can&#x27;t find any info about journal encryption on the website itself. Perhaps there should be a page dedicated to explaining how your data is protected. Otherwise great stuff!
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turnsoutover 2 years ago
It feels like the Venn diagram of 1) people who know what &quot;Zero Knowledge&quot; is and 2) would be willing to create an account on a web service to store their writing… would look like two circles that don&#x27;t touch.<p>I wonder if this would do better as an open source native mobile app?
addandsubtractover 2 years ago
On desktop, I can only scroll the middle section of the site. If I hover anywhere on the side margin and try to scroll, nothing happens. (Firefox, macOS)
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jcutrellover 2 years ago
If I can offer some unsolicited feedback:<p><pre><code> - This space is very crowded - to consider this app, I need to know a differentiator much sooner. Is it the streak? Is it the zero-knowledge? What makes this different from the 20 other options? It seems like the value prop here is &quot;this is a simple journal that tracks whether you wrote today or not, and that is zero knowledge.&quot; If there&#x27;s more, it&#x27;s missing from the marketing here. - There&#x27;s some confusion in the branding. You&#x27;re using the word &quot;guru&quot;, as well as the word &quot;jumble&quot; as a verb. Pick a tagline and a CTA, and stick to those. - I like the point you are trying to make about the value of writing itself... but how does your app take advantage of that value prop? Can I capture those insights in a unique way? Otherwise, I can take your value prop and accomplish it in the writing app I already have an account and history with. </code></pre> I think you&#x27;re on the way to something good here, but it&#x27;s a little too confusing to get me to convert.
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Semaphorover 2 years ago
For the love of anything, please stop messing with the scrollbar. Not only (as two others mentioned) does scrolling only work on part of the screen, it also moves at a completely different speed than what I have set up, and hides the scrollbar.<p>Browser can scroll and handle scrolling well. Let them do it.
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Janymosover 2 years ago
Looks nice! I have been using empty git commit messages for journaling in the past few months and found that I&#x27;m more willing to journal in the command line with this git-abuse than most applications specifically designed for journaling. Don&#x27;t know if anyone else has tried this
low_tech_punkover 2 years ago
In case anyone wonders, the illustrations are done by <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;absurd.design&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;absurd.design&#x2F;</a>
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gejoseover 2 years ago
Shameless plug for my own password protected daily journal app where all your data stays on your device!<p>Built it late last year to build the habit of writing out my thoughts.<p>* iOS: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;apps.apple.com&#x2F;us&#x2F;app&#x2F;a-journal-a-day&#x2F;id1659288235" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;apps.apple.com&#x2F;us&#x2F;app&#x2F;a-journal-a-day&#x2F;id1659288235</a> * Android: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;play.google.com&#x2F;store&#x2F;apps&#x2F;details?id=com.georgejose.journal">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;play.google.com&#x2F;store&#x2F;apps&#x2F;details?id=com.georgejose...</a>
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jrm4over 2 years ago
What about this necessitates &quot;on the internet?&quot;<p>Just do it offline, there&#x27;s your zero-knowledge.
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SeanAndersonover 2 years ago
Zero knowledge here means client side only not zero knowledge proof, correct?
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avinasshover 2 years ago
what does Zero-knowledge mean and how it is different from end to end encrypted?
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scifibestfiover 2 years ago
&gt; &quot;A good writer doesn&#x27;t just think, and then write down what they thought, as a sort of transcript. A good writer will almost always discover new things in the process of writing. And there is, as far as I know, no substitute for this kind of discovery.&quot; -Paul Graham<p>What is it about writing that makes it different than thinking?
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low_tech_punkover 2 years ago
On a marketing tangent, I wish the security practitioners had names better than &quot;zero-knowledge&quot; and &quot;trustless&quot;. To an average person, they really make the system sound dumb and dubious despite them being beneficial.<p>Curious what alternative names people have?
miqueturnerover 2 years ago
I dont actually think this product is finished. It has a buggy interface, specifically the tag and search for tag functions don&#x27;t seem to work from my Macintosh 12.0.1 (Monterey) using Chrome (Version 109.0.5414.119 (Official Build) (x86_64))
moserchover 2 years ago
This is really cool. I love the yearly views. Are you going to make an app too?
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lucasenkrateiaover 2 years ago
Hell yeaaaahhh! Finally something like this came up! Ooh yeah babbbyyyy
Aaronstotleover 2 years ago
This is cool!<p>I noticed you accept bitcoin, will you accept Monero as well?
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moneywoesover 2 years ago
The front end is beautiful, how did you build it?
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pranabgohainover 2 years ago
Very neat! Congrats. KloudMate seems like the right tool for you to implement observability for your serverless application :D
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ICodeSometimesover 2 years ago
looks very slick! are you planning to do the typical SAAS route with this? or is it actually free forever?
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shahahmedover 2 years ago
noticed that the page doesn&#x27;t scroll outside of the center container, which feels a little buggy.
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matt_sover 2 years ago
What problem is zero-knowledge solving and why does that matter for a daily writing journal?
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barlogover 2 years ago
I don&#x27;t have &quot;past my entry&quot;. Can&#x27;t writing(泣)
JohnFenover 2 years ago
Why does this have to be cloud-based at all?
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sam1rover 2 years ago
This is awesome. It reminds me of 750words.con
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matijashover 2 years ago
nicely done! I like how I get warnings for password not being strong enough. What did you build it with?
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marbanover 2 years ago
Day One just announced a Web version.
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frankfrank13over 2 years ago
already locked myself out lol
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SakiWatanabeover 2 years ago
Why not just use Day One, it is already end to end encrypted.
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