If you don’t support alternative technology you won’t get alternative technology.
The people who build the alternatives have to afford a roof over their heads and food on the table too.
[Edit: Link to the private messaging app in question removed after learning about their cryptocurrency and alt-right associations. My original point, however, remains.]
(On a related matter, Small Technology Foundation gets under €400/month in donations – small-tech.org/fund-us. Thank you to everyone who contributes but I don’t think anyone believes this is in any way enough for us to survive. Instead I’ve had to sell two family homes we had in Turkey and now Laura contracts in the mainstream while I work on getting the Small Web ready for this year. This is how little support we have. It is, quite frankly, appalling when you think that the shittiest startup ideas regularly get $5M in VC and I wouldn’t recommend doing what we do to my worst enemy, much less to a recent graduate who wants to work in ethical tech.)
Aral Balkan
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Aral Balkan
Unknown parent • • •@rgarner Environmentalist*
* Terms and conditions may apply.
Aral Balkan
Unknown parent • • •sortius
Unknown parent • • •Russell Garner
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Aral Balkan
in reply to Russell Garner • • •Bob Mottram ✅
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •"Session is a decentralized, end-to-end encrypted messenger. Elevate your privacy with blockchain technology."
That's a nogo.
Aral Balkan
in reply to Bob Mottram ✅ • • •@bob Hmm, interestingly they don’t use blockchain to store messages (which would be horrible) but apparently they have a proof-of-stake token that they use to incentivise the nodes in a swarm (based on a quick skim of their FAQ).
(I don’t use it myself but I had heard of them.)
David Culley
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •I'm sorry for the poor treatment you receive. 😔
You've spoken multiple times to EU parlamentarians. I would think that some folks involved in the funding decisions had you on their radar after your many talks (I'm not familiar with how EU funding works) and it didn't do anything for you.
Even when you applied for funding, they decided to deny you funding.
Aral Balkan
in reply to David Culley • • •David Culley
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •I feel you.
YouTube recently recommended a video to me in which an Amazon (or was it some other Big Tech company?) software engineer explained why he left his L8 role in which he made $800,000 a year to focus on his own startup or whatever.
And I was like, "What do you even do with that amount of money?" At what point have you crossed the line where making more doesn't give you anything anymore?
You can have three very nice meals a day while making much less. You cannot sit on more than one toilet at the same time when you have only one ass.
I'd rather make much less than $800,000 (as long as it's enough) than sell my soul to the devil or doing some bullshit job according to David Graeber.
But they are all convinced that everyone they have ever worked with at Google/Meta/Amazon/Microsoft were the sweetest nicest kindest people.
Building some exploitative shit just so that you can take more than you need doesn't seem very kind to me. These people need to zoom out. A lot. Into bird's view. But that's when they throw "keep politics out of tech" at you.
Aral Balkan
in reply to David Culley • • •nokke
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •as Bob mentions I got a strong whiff of cryptobro when I saw they have a dedicated token site, and you buy usernames with tokens.
I am a user and proponent of Delta Chat (aka #chatmail I looked up Sesssion a bit and they're somewhat similar in concepts, but differ in implementations.
For example, Delta / Chatmail is based on relays (custom email server deployments enforcing encryption policies) whereas Session uses Swarms (5-7 nodes cache an ID range).
chatmail.at/
Chatmail
chatmail.atRuarí Ødegaard
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •nah, that one can die in fire.
Session Messenger is far too tightly linked to crypto because the app runs on blockchain‑based network. Also the node operators are rewarded with their cryptocurrency.
Put another way, the network is powered by a crypto‑based incentive system in the background. We need less crypto not more things pumping it up. This was clearly some crypto bro fantasy that has not worked out.
cryptosmartnews.com/session-ov…
Session Overview: Decentralized Messenger App and Its Role as DePIN - Crypto Smart News
CryptoExpert (CryptoMindset)Aral Balkan
in reply to Ruarí Ødegaard • • •Aral Balkan
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •Wladimir Palant (@WPalant@infosec.exchange)
Wladimir Palant (Infosec Exchange)Lydia Conwell
in reply to Aral Balkan • • •You know my super power is criticising things?
So you know this comes from a good place ...
But I follow your link and I don't know what I'd be donating to. Then I click 'about' and still I don't know. I have to follow more links to know what your project is about.
In fact, I end up on a different website -- your own website -- before I get more of a clear explanation of what the project is.
And it's a good explanation.
I think you need to make it clear what your project is on your donation page and your about page. And a simple tagline/explanatory paragraph is no bad thing.
This is good:
"The Small Web is for people (not startups, enterprises, or governments). It is also made by people and small, independent organisations (not startups, enterprises, or governments).
On the Small Web, you (and only you) own and control your own home."
Although I think there's room from start up independent businesses on the small web, no?
Aral Balkan
in reply to Lydia Conwell • • •@lydiaconwell Hey, thanks for the feedback. I know, I need to find time to update it. Cobbler’s children’s shoes and all that.
But that’s part of the problem. I’m too busy actually building the thing at the moment.