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by exfil 1003 days ago
"Don't roll your own crypto..."
3 comments

This is coming from Signal, who are more than qualified to do this kind of work. You shouldn't roll your own crypto. But crypto experts can do what they want.
Yes, and moreover, they just add a shared secret in the computation of the initial root key, it cannot be worse in this case.
What could go wrong
Is that good or bad?
it's good. think of it like adding a different kind of lock that requires a different key (method) to open up first. at worst it's no less secure than before. If it works as intended it's a huge disincentive for anyone collecting encrypted data with the hopes that a quantum computer may break encryption the "old" method in the future.
If this is always true, then where does crypto come from?
Just like the efficient market hypothesis presents a paradox of who actually makes the market, "don't roll your own crypto" keeps this question unanswered :)
I believe a stork installs the crypto package for your favorite language.
Not sure if you're joking, but "your own" usually means "in isolation of both academic and applied cryptography" – and Signal has some of the world's finest of both working on their protocol, as evidenced by the multiple quoted academic papers.