
Show HN: YourNote, a note-taking app that puts users’ data first - aviaryan
https://yournote.app
======
aviaryan
Hi HN,

The founder of YourNote here. YourNote is a user-first note-taking app. By
user-first, we mean that user's personal data (which are the notes) are
guaranteed to be secure and private if you use YourNote. This is achieved by
using Blockstack and Gaia for user authentication and user data storage. So,
at any point in time, user and only the user has access to their notes. Even
if their Gaia storage gets hijacked, their data is encrypted using the keys
only the user holds so it's basically impossible to access a user's data for a
third party. This establishes two things.

1\. Data Security

2\. Data Privacy

So with YourNote and Blockstack, we can be sure that we are good on those
fronts. Another thing that makes YourNote interesting is that it uses open
standard (markdown with frontmatter) for storing notes. So even if YourNote
gets taken down, the user can still access their data using any text editor as
the data is stored on their own storage. Also, if the user starts hating
YourNote for some reason, they can export their data and either use a text
editor for accessing them, or fork YourNote and make their own app. So
basically, another thing that YourNote guarantees is -

3\. Data Accessibility

I believe these three things are very important for a note-taking app which
stores data that is more "personal" and "valuable" to the user than photos,
media, and other data.

HN, I would love to know what you think about the idea and the product. I know
that it's a long way to go before this can become something that people will
readily jump ship on, but I hope it's a valid start.

~~~
TekMol

        at any point in time, user and only
        the user has access to their notes
    

I don't think that is true.

When I use your app, you can do anything you want to my data. You might
promise me that the Javascript you delivered to my browser is treating my data
in a certain way. Storing it in encrypted form or whatnot. But that is just a
promise. Reality is: you can ship me code that does whatever you like.

~~~
aviaryan
That is true, and the only way to fix that is when users see the code and run
it themselves (I plan to open source very soon). Apart from that, I don't
think I can provide any other guarantees. No open source project can. If they
are discovered doing something bad, they go rekt. That's how it usually is. So
what's the point here? Should I not have a line like this in my copy?

Another thing that can be done is that I distribute my application in such a
way that its code is directly linked to the open source GitHub repo. It can be
done by having some script as the distributable that clones and runs the
source code (it's a very bad way though). It would be interesting to know if
any other open source project in the privacy space is already doing something
extreme like that.

~~~
dyarosla
Word of advice: your usage of immature expressions very much lowers the
professionalism of your product and how much I’d look to trust it. In the
comments here, phrases such as ‘user starts hating YourNote for some reason’
and ‘they go rekt’ are two such examples.

~~~
clarry
Characterising the language you don't agree with as "immature" doesn't reflect
well on you.

~~~
dyarosla
Please provide a more appropriate word to describe those phrases. They’re
definitely unprofessional- but unprofessional doesn’t quite fit here. Also-
nothing about disagreeing with here. There’s language that is appropriate in
some contexts and that isn’t quite appropriate elsewhere. In essence, your
comment is seemingly argumentative for the sake of it.

------
anonvom6
There are a few open source alternatives that let you store your notes
locally.

In no particular order,

1\. QOwnNotes -
[https://github.com/pbek/QOwnNotes](https://github.com/pbek/QOwnNotes)

2\. Joplin -
[https://github.com/laurent22/joplin](https://github.com/laurent22/joplin)

3\. Zim Desktop Wiki - [https://github.com/jaap-karssenberg/zim-desktop-
wiki](https://github.com/jaap-karssenberg/zim-desktop-wiki)

Boostnote was pretty good as well, but it seems like after the change in
leadership, there has been some issues.

~~~
skinnymuch
What issues does Boost have now? It seemed like one of the better options for
code notes

~~~
yangikan
It doesn't store its notes as markdown. It uses a format called cson. Still
easy to parse, but cant open Boost notes in another editor easily.

------
hknd
The landing page doesn't show me anything about this product, and just forces
me to login with 'blockstack'.

Guess I'll close the tab ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

~~~
aviaryan
Oops, the info about the product is at the bottom. And I should have added a
screenshot or illustration too. I added one in the background now. Here is how
the app looks.
[https://i.imgur.com/T3ZVj35.png](https://i.imgur.com/T3ZVj35.png)

~~~
alphakappa
That should be the first thing a visitor sees on the home page. Users don't
owe you a click on 'learn more'. Explain the product, and maybe even allow
them to use it without creating an account, and only ask them to sign up/sign-
in when absolutely necessary (like, if they try to save a note, or if they are
leaving with some unsaved work)

Also, why would your average user care about 'blockstack'? That's an
implementation detail that might be cool to you, but it's an irrelevant thing
to put front and center. Even most nerds would be unaware of what this is.

~~~
aviaryan
You are right. I made this keeping Blockstack people in mind and didn't
realize I should change that before launching publicly. I am working on a new
homepage now.

------
trulyrandom
The site is a little light on details, but I assume my notes will be stored in
a distributed way? What are some key advantages of this over something like
Standard Notes ([https://standardnotes.org](https://standardnotes.org)), which
allows backing up notes to multiple different cloud storage providers.

~~~
aviaryan
It's not distributed. Your data will be stored on a storage provider of your
choice and it will only be accessible to you (or others with whom you share).

More here: [https://github.com/blockstack/gaia#user-control-how-is-
gaia-...](https://github.com/blockstack/gaia#user-control-how-is-gaia-
decentralized)

I haven't used Standard Notes before but from what I see now, it looks close
to what we plan to make. I wonder how they store the data and what happens
with data in case they disappear. I will look more into it.

------
viralpoetry
Curious that nobody mentioned
[https://standardnotes.org/](https://standardnotes.org/)

* already open-source

* client side encryption

* multi platform / multi device

* offline access, local backups

------
canadianwriter
I just switched to Standardnote recently and have been liking it so far - they
are privacy centric as well, making all notes encrypted. What is the main
benefit of this over Standardnote? I only have a few notes in there so if I do
switch now is the time to do it...

------
superkuh
All the things this program claims to solve are problems it created by being
something other than just an actual notepad application running on your local
computer.

~~~
dduncan
I think this is only true if (a) Your local computer is part of an existing
secure, cloud-based personal solution for sharing generic files, and (b) You
have note-taking capabilities to work on a common note-taking file format
across the devices in (a).

I think you suggest a point, though, that it seems that it would be ideal to
have a general secure and accessible file storage implementation, with
specific apps where needed.

And personally, along the lines of what you're saying, I'm actually more
concerned about finding a really good, local note-taking method than even
involving the cloud or de-centralized Internet in some way.

------
ac130kz
Loading takes 15 seconds, Blockstack account is required, which is not what I
would want to.

Maybe this app puts users' data first, but but the user.

~~~
aviaryan
Haha, I am sure I can optimize the loading time. A blockstack account is
required for reliably managing the auth. It's much better than relying on
Google for it or coding one of our own IMHO.

~~~
TickleSteve
why?

Googles pretty damn good at auth... why is this better?

------
yuchi
> Store your notes in the default gaia hub or use your own. > You are always
> in control of where your data is stored.

What’s Gaia? What‘s a hub? Should I now how to roll my own?

This is getting a little bit too common for projects to just shoot features
that are completely opaque to the user.

Or, either, I’m just getting old.

But I tend to believe that’s not the case.

------
nearpoint
I read your Medium post and was curious what you would think about Memrey
[https://www.memrey.com](https://www.memrey.com)

With Memrey we offer our users 256 bit AES encryption. If a user encrypts
their notepad not even we can decrypt the users data.

Also we plan to integrate PDF backups emailed to you on a monthly basis. Right
now you can download a PDF backup of any notepad, but automatically emailing
it every month would be a nice way of having it be worry free.

If you get a chance I would be curious to know if you think Memrey would solve
your issues? It is one of the most advanced notebook products on the market.

------
aviaryan
We are live on Product Hunt! :tada:

I have used the comments and feedback mentioned here to add an FAQ section on
the landing page. Thank you, everyone. :pray:

------
burkesquires
I think it is worth a mention that Simplenote
([https://simplenote.com](https://simplenote.com)) is a simple note taking
application available, at no cost, on all of the platforms mentioned. I use it
because it syncs better than notes on my iPhone.

~~~
nearpoint
Memrey sync way better than simplenote I kid you not. In fact no other
application sync as fast as Memrey, its core technology is built for this
stuff. And it is available for all platforms as well.

------
8bitsrule
I usually need to see some reason for turning on google-analytics. I didn't at
first ... empty page. After I did that, I have no idea what block-stack auth
is (why should I trust that?), no idea what Gaia is. Guess I'm not the
audience.

------
cocoa19
This sounds like a great idea.

If this product is free and takes off, how do you plan to monetize the
website?

~~~
aviaryan
I can ask users for a one-time charge to sign up on the app. Also, maybe I can
add some "pro" features which I am unsure of, at the moment. Not really sure
to be honest, let's see.

~~~
dduncan
Are you planning to take a shot at getting funding through this Blockstack
"App Mining" program ([https://app.co/mining](https://app.co/mining))? If so:

My suggestion would be to put this in a FAQ somewhere. I'd imagine to the
great majority of people this wouldn't be a big deal, but it would help
explain the motivation and, for some people, evaluate trustworthiness.

~~~
aviaryan
Yes, we plan to use that as a means to sustain ourselves till we can actually
make some money from this. Thanks for pointing, I have mentioned it in the
landing page's FAQ now.

~~~
Flenser
Could you make it so we don't have to log out to see the link to that page.

------
vibeland
Taking back ownership of personal data!

~~~
somewhiteb0y
Data is currency!

