[messaging] Tahoe-Lafs + miniLock: A device agnostic & user friendly zero knowledge file system?

[Ximin Luo]

On 04/11/14 16:53, totient at riseup.net wrote:
> Currently, there is no zero knowledge file system that is user friendly and fully open source.
> 

Hi, I haven't yet read through the rest of it, but my first comment is that "zero-knowledge file system" sounds like mystical marketing terminology. I haven't heard of this term before, and only found it in reference to Spider Oak: https://spideroak.com/zero-knowledge/

This property is already satisfied by lots of other storage systems, including Tahoe that you mentioned, and might be more clearly described as "end-to-end encrypted storage". Calling it "zero-knowledge" makes it sound like something new and special, which it isn't, and is arguably a disservice to those other projects. (It tries to gain market share via unfair means.)

The term sounds like it is inappropriately trying to associate with the impressive-sounding nature of a "zero-knowledge proof/protocol", which (AIUI) is the original use of the term "zero-knowledge". However, end-to-end encrypted storage systems currently don't meet this property - they do authentication via signatures which are not "zero-knowledge" since it allows the verifier to prove to others that the prover/signer wrote the data. I am guessing Spider Oak is no different; they don't even mention these concepts in their definition of "zero-knowledge".

X

-- 
GPG: 4096R/1318EFAC5FBBDBCE
git://github.com/infinity0/pubkeys.git

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