Keybase is an amazing idea which seems to be trapped by the current zeitgeist. It implements smooth and intuitive PKI via a command line, a mobile app and a web/electron app and seem to be rolling it out as a slack and/or dropbox alternative which are pretty solid use cases.
The downsides are that it has a very cartoony 'silicon valley' type feel which is great for early adopters, but will be a significant barrier to enterprise and government customers who would otherwise be an absolute prime market for easy-to-implement, easy-to-administrate PKI.
It also has a very start-up oriented world view in terms of 'teams'. There would be great call for generic group management. I would love to have some stakeholder management across some projects where we could have a shared space, but also have separate areas for client, supplier and subcontractors. Keybase kind of doesn't quite fit the need for privacy there, although it is so close to being exactly what is needed.
Bringing it back round to the social networking thing though - it feels kind of like it was inspired a lot by social networking. This would be a boon if it were to become a social network. It is absolutely a downside if they're looking for a wider remit.
Idk if they realized what they had... They don't even need their own chat client - I implemented an example where I could encrypt and decrypt messages automatically to anyone, over any web based client:
They came up with a good solution to the 'key signing party' problem.
Using public social media accounts to help prove identity is a good idea - it's a solution to the main problem that PGP had.
I think Facebook could have done something similar by generating key pairs for all users and then allowing third part access to the public keys (basically a huge public key server). For users that wanted their own private key off of Facebook they could upload their own public key. It's probably better with the keybase model though and using multiple social media accounts.
Nothing is monetized yet as far as I can see. I like Keybase more though, it doesn't force me to have a phone (what the hell, Signal's Linux desktop client requires that at least).
I also like the keybase product. But when I see an ambitious, well-funded startup without a paid product or clear business model... that tells me I cannot yet trust their product, strategy or management team to endure. Next year they might be a completely different company, or might not exist at all. Since they haven't open-sourced their server, that makes it risky to rely on their products, because I don't really know what it is I'm relying on.
Signal in comparison is very clear about their goals, management and business model, and I believe are 100% open-source. That gives me confidence to adopt it now, even though it's a less feature-rich product.
I would love to see Signal adopt the Keybase identity-by-proof model, I think it's very clever and pragmatic.
I wonder if they're in contact or work with each other.