Public key encryption allows for encrypted, private messages. A message sent from Bob to Alice gets encrypted using Alice’s public key. Public key encryption also allows for signed messages–so that when Alice signs a message, Alice uses her private key and Bob can verify it if Bob has her public key.

In both cases, Bob needs Alice’s public key! If Bob gets that public key from an email message, Bob is trusting that the email message is secure–and if Bob can’t ever verify that first message containing the key, he has no way to verify the messages that come after it.

This is the problem of key distribution.

Key distribution undermines the usability of PGP encryption. Serious encryption advocates will sometimes meet in person to exchange pieces of paper containing public keys. Keybase is a company that attempts to solve the problem of key distribution by having users connect social media accounts and devices to Keybase, in order to collectively verify who you are, and then give you the power to share your public key.

Max Krohn is a founder of Keybase, and was previously a founder of SparkNotes and OKCupid. Max was on the show a few years ago to discuss the basics of Keybase, and in this episode he explores some of the abstractions that Keybase has built on top of its core identity tool–Keybase File System, Keybase Teams, and Keybase Git. We do break down the basics of Keybase, but if you want a more thorough explanation, you might like to check out that older episode, you can download the Software Engineering Daily app on iOS or Android to find all of our old episodes.

Transcript

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