DMme Weekly: To code or not to code? + latest from privacy news and interviews
Published by: Bio_logik
Date: 9th June 2019
1. TO CODE OR NOT TO CODE?
has been a couple of weeks without update, so naturally, we got asked many times what is going on with the messaging app, the website and the future of the project. First, one thing we do appreciate A LOT, no FUD or no misinformation emerged from our members and community as a whole. This means a lot to us. We are (trying) to constantly engage with the community to show and prove that we are here to stay.
Mocho visited the dev team a while back to lay down the foundation of the cooperation work between them and DMme. They gave us access to a spreadsheet highlighting the different steps in the application making as well as explaining that we are asking for something which is feasible and that requires a great deal of work and inputs. This app has 2 sides: back-end and front-end. While some decide to do both in the same time, and to fix conflicts between both sides as they go along, DMme cannot do that due to the nature of the app itself. The mere fact that there is constant interaction within the app between 2 third parties (as a minimum) means that we must ensure a flawless and strong back-end before looking at an intuitive and amazing front-end. At current time, this is where our devs stand at: ‘We don’t really care of the interface at this point, the work required for this kind of app is of EPIC PROPORTION. We are constantly working on the core structure of the product: CODE CODE CODE’. This statement (taken word for word from the dev lead) does make perfect sense. In a somehow easy and simplistic analogy, do you build the body of a car before you know what the engine will look like? From our end, we are well pleased with this statement. Why? Because it shows that we are building something strong, make to last and somewhat more complex than your traditional messaging app. This also confirm to us and to our community that we have hired a dev team up to the task of delivering what we want. In the crypto space, where the word ‘dev’ is overused, misused, unused and disused, having the lead dev taking a stance and affirming that we are building something grandiose but that needs grandiose amount of work show that there is no bulls***ting and more importantly, that there is no cutting corners. We will accomplish something great, and we will accomplish it the right way!!
We know that the work on the graphical interface will wait until the code is thoroughly completed, compiled, debugged, tested, etc. On the code side, the team encountered delays due to:
‘The current development status has suffered from a critical security issue exploited in a public handshaking protocol for pub key exchange, we are trying to get this fixed within the next 10 business days, if we cannot manage we will switch to a different protocol and change the app structure accordingly.
Once the handshaking protocol issue has been fixed, normal development plan will resume.’
This is dated from the 7th June, so we expect the work on the development to resume by the 17th June. For those who have no clues what that means, it is related to the process of initiating private and secure connection between users, hence kind of important I would say ;). They mention that they will switch protocol if they can’t fix it, this can be translated as ‘if we can’t have it our way, it means the protocol is not fit for purpose, so we will create one fit for it’. You can see below the current status of the development process. Images tend to speak louder than words, so this update on the coding side, the most important side of the app, will allow our members to see that work is still ongoing. As stated by the spreadsheet, we can see the critical security flaw mentioned earlier and the whole team is on it fixing it, 50% of it has been done, then the exploit appeared so it is stuck at this level until the fix (or the change of protocol) is carried out. We can assume that once this is resolved, the most important stages such as check, debug and consolidation will be implemented. Then and only then, we can expect work on the graphical interface to be started.
It is hard to see this progression in pictures, how do you put in image coding? So we asked for snippets of code from the team. We thought that at least we can provide coding interface screenshots. While for many, this will have no consequent meaning (including me), the below are codes extract from our future app.
Before closing on the technical update side of the project, the dev team insisted many times on the scale of the DMme app. It is not your common messaging app, especially with the kind of protocol and encryption they are using and the features we have asked of them. Therefore, they did mention that patience is a virtue here, and they will not rush and do a butch job. They aim to accomplish one the best privacy focused messaging app out there and this can not be done in a few weeks. The coding is one part, the interface design is another part, but the debugging, testing, re testing and re debugging is what will make this app great ultimately.
Now for the most mundane updates: I have been delighted to be interviewed by Gigamesh and the full interview is available on Human Actions website (which is also a great website for crypto merchandise and it takes DMme as form of payment too!). We are also in talk to do a live video stream interview with a crypto blog team from the US. If this goes ahead, you will be able to see my pretty face alongside hearing my strong French accent :).
2. PRIVACY NEWS
As I said numerous time before, I am a huge fan of Telegram, by miles the best messaging app out there, with the best focus on privacy. I was somehow left perplexe with their latest update. On one side, more settings, more features, more more more everything, as expected from Durov. However, on the other side, I couldn’t help but feel that it started to ressemble Facebook with all those settings. While it is good to offer more features, it can become cumbersome for the users to know what to do and how to do it. Let’s face it, how many users read the change log and more importantly, act on it? When the update came out, we could see many Discord servers warning their member to act on it immediately as their numbers is now visible by default to all their contact.
Durov stands for privacy and in a recent post explained his new diet. One could easily asked if he is not going too far in all aspect of his life. Let’s hope not. And if Mr Durov reads this article, by any miraculous miracle, I would love to meet him in person. :)
Let’s move to one im not at all a fan of: Twatter (typo intended). A new expression has been attributed recently to Twatter: Shadow banning. It is when, by accident (??), Twatter hide certain accounts tweet. While it is only indirectly linked to privacy, it is 100% linked to fascism. Very like its brother in crime Facebook, Twatter feels the need to spit in the face of its users, do whatever it (or governments, or illuminati, etc..) wants. Despite being a total disgrace, it is even more disgraceful that no media outlets reported it with a proper full length article or why no real investigation has been launched against it. If I were to meet Durov (please please please), I would ask him to use part of its fortune to destroy Twatter and Facebook, although with Facebook, it should be fairly easy, as less and less people are using it.
Between Telegram going in a questionable direction, and Twatter being a twat, what future privacy, or lack of, has for us in store? I personally believe that others will rise to protect what is left of our individualism and our universal right of ‘leave me alone’. I pray for Twatter and Facebook (and many others) to be eradicated from the face of the earth, while seeing the rise of a truly decentralised platforms, where the choice for privacy and more importantly, the mean of implementing that choice is made simple, easy, and understandable for all generations.
Patience is a virtue, not losing it is a skill, appreciating it is a talent
DMme Project:
Web: dmmecoin.com / dmme.app (coming soon)
Discord: https://discord.gg/xAEhbw7
Bitcointalk: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5106323.0
Litepaper: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vjpUSzieK6_-eXD3wOo-P2N7KbfmqpGP/view
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DMmecoin
IF IT IS FREE, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT
