@benpate There’s not a lot stopping this from being added at the client level today, but the 500-character default restrictions set by the Mastodon (and other) server software makes it difficult to fit into a single post.

@benpate we believe in you!

@benpate I wonder if the Fediverse can build on the back of the Signal Protocol. I think that protocol is non-federated, so folks would need to figure out a way to federate it, which is probably really tricky.

@ramsey

We are.

To be more helpful and specific, we are using the MLS protocol, which is an open standard inspired by the signal protocol.

I’ve written up my description of the project here, with links to the official announcements and specifications: https://emissary.dev/e2ee

@ramsey @benpate I was able to do it a decade ago with Twitter DMs - although that had a 10k character limit.
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2015/09/pgp-encrypt-twitter-dms-with-keybase/

@benpate IIRC @soatok is working in something like that

@thepanz @soatok

Yes. And so are @Bonfire and I. Check out https://emissary.dev/e2ee

Sorry for being obtuse

We have chatted with @soatok (should I say, Mr. Tok?) about the project a bit, and welcomed his advice.

@ramsey

On a technical level, yes. But you’d need a highly customized client or the UX would be atrocious.

We do have an effort going on now - not with Mastodon, but on the Fediverse in general - that’s aiming to launch mid-year.

So, it’s not a “what if” but really a “pretty likely to happen”

I love when open tech leads!

@jupiter_rowland

That’s very cool.

How much work is happening on Hubzilla now? Is there a chance that we could implement this same MLS-based protocol on it?

I think the server-side work is minimal. And, you could even use my Typescript code as a starting point…

@benpate@mastodon.social jr pna, V nz fraqvat lbh n urnivyl rapelcgrq zrffntr evtug abj, va snpg! Vg vf fb tbbq lbh pna rira eha gur pvcure gjvpr naq vg vf qbhoyr rapelcgrq.