[eterps]

> TL;DR: FOKS is like Keybase, but fully open-source and federated

What features from a user perspective does it currently have in common with Keybase?

F.e. I remember Keybase mostly for secure messaging using public identities (HN, Reddit etc.), and sharing data/files.

[maxtaco]

E2E-encrypted git. Keybase has KBFS, and FOKS has a poor man's equivalent, which is E2E-encrypted Key-value store.

[eterps]

Thanks! Sorry for being lazy, but I was wondering how you share something using the E2E-encrypted KV store (it wasn't obvious in the website)? In kbfs, I remember it was as easy as putting it in a comma separated usernames path.

[maxtaco]

It's not as seamless. You need to first make a team, then invite (or add) that user into the team, and then use `foks kv put --team <your-team>`. One key difference is that in Keybase, all user's profiles were essentially world-readable. FOKS aims for more privacy by default, so in order to add Bob to your team, Bob has to first allow you view his sigchain, so you can learn his public keys.

The add vs invite distinction referred to above is because servers can choose different visibility policies. You can set up a server at foks.yourdomain.cc, and set it to "open-viewership", which means that any user can see any other user by default. If you and Bob are both on that host, you can add him to your team without his permission. But other hosts, like foks.app, do not work this way, and Bob has to authorize you to view him.