
Stellar just sent 100M Lumens (worth $5M USD) to 300k Keybase users - gavreh
https://keybase.io/airdrop
======
jqueryin
For those of you not on Keybase yet, here's the most important piece of
information in the post:

 _" To qualify: you must have a Keybase account registered before this
announcement OR if you're new to Keybase, you must connect your Keybase
account to a GitHub or HackerNews account that was registered before this
announcement. This is to prevent bot signups to Keybase."_

~~~
mopsi
It fails to mention that Github and HN accounts must be older than January 1,
2017. This is what I saw in the app when I tried to join the airdrop:
[https://i.imgur.com/ZOZ1rB7.png](https://i.imgur.com/ZOZ1rB7.png)

I hope that's an accidental omission and not an intentional dark pattern.

~~~
malgorithms
Not a dark pattern, an accidental leftover string from our testing. Any
account registered before today qualifies. I'll deploy a fix to that shortly.
Update: deployed, although you may need to restart your app to update the
text.

~~~
tylerdurdan24
Sucks you had the sign up date prior to the announcement. When I read the
announcement I immediately signed up for a keybase, HN and Github account and
then find out I cant be included because I signed up on 9/9/2019\. You would
think that would be the incentive to at least give a little buffer for people
to join in that were not aware.

------
skybrian
I'm not sure it's a great idea to place a $20 bounty on breaking into anyone's
Keybase, GitHub, or Hacker News account? And this bounty will go up every
month, until something breaks?

The weak link here seems to be Hacker News since it's protected only by a
password.

~~~
3JPLW
How does compromising a GitHub or HN account compromise the linked Keybase
account? Yes, you can link to those accounts on Keybase, but the trust
relationship is going the other way: Keybase is proving that you had access to
those accounts (on a particular day).

~~~
plttn
I think the implication is that an unlinked and appropriately aged Github/HN
account can be compromised to get 20 bucks by compromising and linking.

I'm sure if someone actually reached out to @malgorithms saying "hey someone
stole my GH/HN account out from under me to get the 20 bucks" they'd resolve
the issue.

~~~
skybrian
That's assuming you would notice. I just linked my HN account to Keybase, then
deleted the proof from my HN profile. The link doesn't seem to be revoked?

It seems like an attacker could do that, and I don't know when you'd first
notice that your HN profile is linked to a Keybase account that doesn't belong
to you? Particularly someone who doesn't use Keybase.

~~~
eridius
The link isn't removed on the keybase side but the next time it's checked it
will be flagged as bad. Clients will check it automatically when you follow;
otherwise, I believe what happens is the system will periodically check it and
cache that data for some time (so that way you're not hitting the external
services every single time you visit someone's profile).

I would assume the airdrop ensures the GitHub/HN proofs are up-to-date before
sending the lumens.

------
chance_state
Can someone explain why this is particularly interesting?

Seems like every other coin/product giveaway to seed users on a platform, but
I'm not super familiar with the Stellar network.

~~~
mdip
I'd normally be with you on this and I get the sensitivity to cryptocurrency
(more-often-than-not-snakeoil) posts, but I think this is interesting because
of the broader implications:

(1) Keybase is an interesting product -- on its own, it's a great product
(I've been a user since before `kbfs`) that's well designed, its architecture
and implementation is interesting and its features are practical/useful to a
lot of us. I don't know that they've made public/private key cryptography
accessible to everyone, but it's a far cry from every other attempt I've seen.

(2) At least, for me, I didn't understand the reason for Stellar's
integration. A lot of people ran to "quick buck"/"another crypto-play", but it
just didn't seem consistent with the way keybase had been operating up to
then. There were already many shared technologies involved, along with a
company that, thus far, has had me excited with every new feature
announcement, I remember saying "not sure how good of an idea this is, but if
it can be done, they're the ones that could probably do it".

And their purpose for the currency, from what little I (probably don't)
understand, is _not_ to hold/trade but use it to purchase.

I hadn't touched the Stellar wallet feature, at all, because I didn't care to
figure out how to put cash money into a crypto account "for no reason". I'm
not a cryptocurrency investor (I've mined a bit). The thing of it is, I cared
so little about it that I didn't even bother looking if there _was_ a reason
to toss some funds in. Now I don't have to and they just bribed me to
investigate, further.

I'm guessing this is mostly a marketing play. Hopefully I'll find some good
reason that I want $20 in Lumens; if that's the case, then they saw what was
needed to hack me.

~~~
rictic
I think the interesting thing about a cryptocurrency working with keybase is
that it is a solid solution to the "am I sending this money to the person I
think I am" problem. If I owe someone $20, I might or might not know their
venmo name, or their bitcoin address, but I probably know their handle on
github, hacker news, twitter, reddit, etc.

------
cwkoss
Does this create tax implications for all HN users?

~~~
saxonww
First - this will apply to HN users with a Keybase account who have opted in
to the airdrop, not all HN users.

I am not a CPA, but I think there are two things involved here (for people in
the US):

1\. This is a gift, but the value of it (about $20 right now) is less than the
gift tax threshold. 2\. Lumens are probably (?) treated like bitcoin, which
are treated like a security, not currency.

I think this means that yes, there are tax implications. You will be obligated
to pay short- or long-term capital gains tax when you elect to 'sell' the
Lumens, and the cost basis will be the fair market value of the Lumens on the
day you receive them from SDF.

Again, not a CPA, tax lawyer, or anything like that.

------
eridius
I have a Keybase account with a wallet. I haven't actually used the wallet for
anything, but it does exist. And I didn't receive any lumens.

If this surprise gift was for "each active Keybase user", how do they define
"active Keybase user"?

Edit: Also, the desktop app didn't show anything about joining the monthly
airdrop. I had to fire up the mobile app to see it.

Edit 2: After fully quitting the desktop app (including status item) and
relaunching, the Wallet section finally shows an "Airdrop" entry. I shouldn't
have to fully quit out of Keybase for this to work though.

------
scarejunba
Sweet. Good tip.

