Gliph - Secure Messaging and Bitcoin Transfers on iOS, Android and the Web

[Gliph]

Gliph

Secure Messaging + P2P Marketplace + Bitcoin Payments

iPhone App: https://gli.ph/iPhone

Android App: https://gli.ph/android

Web App: https://gli.ph/a

Supports Coinbase and Blockchain.info Bitcoin Wallets

Gliph is the easiest way to buy and sell using Bitcoin. Social messaging lets you connect with friends and send Bitcoin in a few taps.

Buy and Sell in Gliph Marketplace

• Use your iPhone, Android or laptop to create listings online and offer discounts if people pay in Bitcoin.
• Communicate securely and privately with potential buyers. Connect your Coinbase wallet for hassle-free acceptance of Bitcoin payments.
• When you close a deal, you can choose to stay connected and build on the relationship with the other person.
• Browse the marketplace for cool stuff. Many sellers offer discounted pricing if you pay using Bitcoin.

Help and FAQ

Helpful Links:

• Past discussion about Gliph on Bitcoin Talk
• Recent updates from the company blog

• Security Practices

Recent News:

• Introducing Gliph Marketplace

[Gliph]

Reserved

[vlees]

What makes this a secure messaging platform?

Every other SMS replacement claimed/claims to be secure and by now every major service turned out to often not even include encryption or a bad one making it not secure at all.

[001sonkit]

What makes this a secure messaging platform?

Every other SMS replacement claimed/claims to be secure and by now every major service turned out to often not even include encryption or a bad one making it not secure at all.

https://gli.ph/security2.html

[Gliph]

What makes this a secure messaging platform?

Thanks for asking.

Privacy is one of our core beliefs. We created a privacy policy to demonstrate this. Part of providing privacy means preventing your data from being snooped on.

Gliph secures data in ways that most other messaging clients (like Whatsapp, GroupMe and Kik) do not. There are also options out there that are a better fit for high security needs (like certain implementations of PGP and OTR).

With Gliph, conversations and personal data are encrypted by SSL over the wire. This information is then encrypted in memory using your password and AES-256. We have an option that renders your account and data unrecoverable without your personal password.

Our team is motivated to offering a great messaging experience, too. This means Gliph supports apps for the mobile web (HTML5), Android and iPhone.  

We also have a variety of features for the privacy and security conscious user you might want to check out:

• You can suppress certain senders' names and message previews from Push Notifications.
• Gliph removes EXIF data from your photos before sending them on to the other person.
• You can permanently delete any message and remove it from both sides of the conversation.

I hope that helps answer your question. I'd be happy to talk further about this, my email is: rob | gli.ph.

rob

[Pale Phoenix]

This is a rather unique and interesting project. I've downloaded it and will give it a go this evening.

[Stunna]

I've tried this out a few times and think it is one of the most user friendly ways to communicate securely with others. Is it possible for you to release some sort of web client for this?The web app is annoying to use within that small virtual iPhone window, the phone app is good though.

[Gliph]

This is a rather unique and interesting project. I've downloaded it and will give it a go this evening.

I look forward to your feedback. Thank you for checking it out.

I've tried this out a few times and think it is one of the most user friendly ways to communicate securely with others. Is it possible for you to release some sort of web client for this? The web app is annoying to use within that small virtual iPhone window, the phone app is good though.

Thank you for trying out Gliph. We try to achieve great communications experience while doing our best to preserve security and privacy.

The web client is pretty rough right now. :L I do most of the Support Gliph from it, and I wish it was way better. We nearly got this updated a few months ago, but we have wanted to focus on Bitcoin exclusively until we've got some great Bitcoin wallets to choose from. 

Someone from the Gliph community released a Gliph for Desktop Chrome extension that changes the desktop web. We communicated with the author of this extension but we do not support this, so use at your own risk.

We will be providing a desktop web update, but I don't have a release date at this time.

[Gliph]

It is Friday and we want to try something new.  

Update: I'm stopping the free .01 Bitcoin offer for now. We gave out a fair amount of Bitcoin to folks for trying it out. Thanks a lot to everyone who participated!

We're giving out a free .01 Bitcoin to the next 30 people who post in this thread with a BitcoinTalk Activity greater or equal to 25.

Here's how it works:

• Have a Gliph account with a Coinbase or BIPS wallet attached.
• Post a reply here with your Gliph (See Settings -> Download Gliph as Image on the iPhone app and the web app).
• Send a message to the Support Gliph saying "I replied on BitcoinTalk" or similar.
• We'll check the thread and match your reply to your message with .01 BTC attached.

The idea here is to twofold:

• Encourage people who have not had motivation yet to try out Gliph to give it shake.
  
• Help BitcoinTalk people find people to connect with and try out Bitcoin transfers with on Gliph

If you don't have 25 activity on BitcoinTalk yet, sorry. This is a somewhat arbitrary guess at a what a reasonably active BitcoinTalk person is.

Since this isn't automated, there is a chance of a delay between when you post and message support. Particularly during normal sleeping time PST. However, we will honor what I've laid out here so please be patient and we will hook you up. I'll either edit this post or post a new reply when we've sent Bitcoin to 30 BitcoinTalk people.

Depending how this goes, and if people are cool with this, we may do it again.


rob

[Gliph]

Not sure if revealing my Gliph to the world really fits the concept.

Thanks for the feedback. I think you have a solid point. If you don't want to post your Gliph publicly, you can simply reply to the post saying, "PM Sent" and include your Gliph in the PM.

rob

[Mooshire]

PM sent. Will try this.

[Gliph]

PM sent. Will try this.

Cool, thanks for trying this out. I haven't seen your PM on BitcoinTalk yet, or the message to the Support Gliph. We need both to connect your account with your Activity here int he forum. I'll keep an eye out for them.

edit: just got em. thanks.

[Mooshire]

He sent the bitcent, seems like a good guy. We talked for a minute or two. I hope he succeeds with this.

[TheButterZone]

PM sent

ETA: BTC received, tks

ETA2: I'm not sure if Gliph and Coinbase are really a good fit; everyone gets email notifications with all of our email addresses and whatever names we put in Coinbase exposed on receiving/sending BTC to each other.

[TheLordOfTime]

PM sent to ya.

ETA2: I'm not sure if Gliph and Coinbase are really a good fit; everyone gets email notifications with all of our email addresses and whatever names we put in Coinbase exposed on receiving/sending BTC to each other.

Pulling a quote from my friend TBZ here, I agree with his assessment.  There is an email notification from Coinbase, and a listing on the coinbase TX log, of the bound account's name and email address as listed on the account.  That is exposed on the Coinbase logs, not necessarily the blockchain, however it is a valid assessment that privacy/anonymity (to a point), which one normally gets through gliph because messages aren't going to reveal email addresses or actual names unless those profile fields are shared publicly, could be an issue here by continuing to use Coinbase.

[Gliph]

PM sent to ya.

ETA2: I'm not sure if Gliph and Coinbase are really a good fit; everyone gets email notifications with all of our email addresses and whatever names we put in Coinbase exposed on receiving/sending BTC to each other.

Pulling a quote from my friend TBZ here, I agree with his assessment.  There is an email notification from Coinbase, and a listing on the coinbase TX log, of the bound account's name and email address as listed on the account.  That is exposed on the Coinbase logs, not necessarily the blockchain, however it is a valid assessment that privacy could be an issue here by continuing to use Coinbase.

Hey, thanks for pointing that out. We noticed this right away when we were building Gliph's integration with Coinbase.  We agree it may be an intrusion on privacy of participants. To handle this, when Coinbase accounts are created with Gliph, we use "Cloaked Email" addresses. These protect the privacy of the person's email.  You can read more about Cloaked Email here: https://blog.gli.ph/2012/08/14/delivering-privacy-gliph-cloaked-email/  

Cloaked Email is useful for other things than just protecting privacy on Coinbase, and a free cloak comes with each signup--in addition to the one we use when creating Coinbase a wallet.

[TheLordOfTime]

ETA2: I'm not sure if Gliph and Coinbase are really a good fit; everyone gets email notifications with all of our email addresses and whatever names we put in Coinbase exposed on receiving/sending BTC to each other.

Pulling a quote from my friend TBZ here, I agree with his assessment.  There is an email notification from Coinbase, and a listing on the coinbase TX log, of the bound account's name and email address as listed on the account.  That is exposed on the Coinbase logs, not necessarily the blockchain, however it is a valid assessment that privacy could be an issue here by continuing to use Coinbase.

Hey, thanks for pointing that out. We noticed this right away when we were building Gliph's integration with Coinbase.  We agree it may be an intrusion on privacy of participants. To handle this, when Coinbase accounts are created with Gliph, we use "Cloaked Email" addresses. These protect the privacy of the person's email.  You can read more about Cloaked Email here: https://blog.gli.ph/2012/08/14/delivering-privacy-gliph-cloaked-email/  

Cloaked Email is useful for other things than just protecting privacy on Coinbase, and a free cloak comes with each signup--in addition to the one we use when creating Coinbase a wallet.

There is one issue, though, and I apologize for hoarding your thread for this discussion, but it is relevant for people who wish to link preexisiting coinbase accounts with their Gliphs.  Many people have coinbase accounts that were not created as part of the Gliph system, and were created previously with actual email addresses and such.

In testing, TBZ and I tested the integration feature of sending BTC via gliph, in which 0.01 BTC was sent from TBZ to me (and of course I sent it back, but that's not relevant to this discussion).  During the test, Coinbase, both on Coinbase's site's transaction log and their email notifications will reveal the preexisting account's email addresses, and with such accounts that were created outside of the Gliph system, it will continue to utilize those addresses.  TBZ and I both wanted to see how the feature worked, to make sure it correctly deposits into the bound Coinbase accounts, and we wanted to accurately test the Coinbase depositing system to see if it actually revealed any data, which it did.

I would suggest adding a disclaimer in the "Login to coinbase" option, either as a popup or additional screen, mentioning that if you bind a Coinbase account that was *not* created with Gliph, the email address and the name on the account will be revealed to whomever receives the bitcoins.  That would at least allow users who care to read to be told that there is a risk that their information will be revealed to other users when they send BTC.  This would also protect you (or, in tech lingo, the devs) if, say, someone used the system without knowing that risk, and decided to go on a rant and claim the privacy issue was caused by your application (which of course it isn't, but most people aren't going to know that).

That's just my two cents.  Again, sorry for hijacking your thread on this single point.

[Gliph]

There is one issue, though, and I apologize for hoarding your thread for this discussion, but it is relevant for people who wish to link preexisiting coinbase accounts with their Gliphs.  Many people have coinbase accounts that were not created as part of the Gliph system, and were created previously with actual email addresses and such.

In testing, TBZ and I tested the integration feature of sending BTC via gliph, in which 0.01 BTC was sent from TBZ to me (and of course I sent it back, but that's not relevant to this discussion).  During the test, Coinbase, both on Coinbase's site's transaction log and their email notifications will reveal the preexisting account's email addresses, and with such accounts that were created outside of the Gliph system, it will continue to utilize those addresses.  TBZ and I both wanted to see how the feature worked, to make sure it correctly deposits into the bound Coinbase accounts, and we wanted to accurately test the Coinbase depositing system to see if it actually revealed any data, which it did.

To summarize, when two Coinbase users send Bitcoin to each other, it reveals the email addresses of both users. This happens whether the users use Gliph or not, and even if they do not know that each other are Coinbase users (they are working with wallet addresses only).  This is a specific behavior of Coinbase, and we can not change this.

I would suggest adding a disclaimer in the "Login to coinbase" option, either as a popup or additional screen, mentioning that if you bind a Coinbase account that was *not* created with Gliph, the email address and the name on the account will be revealed to whomever receives the bitcoins.

This is an interesting idea. To clarify, this does not reveal email address to anyone who receives bitcoin, only if the other user is on also on Coinbase. For example, if a Gliph user with a Coinbase wallet attached sends bitcoin to a user using a BIPS wallet, this does not occur.

This is a very good point, we will look for a way to warn existing Coinbase users who attach their wallet about this concern. Especially given the privacy we are trying to protect. We do feel though, that this concern would best be alleviated by a change in how Coinbase behaves.

That's just my two cents.  Again, sorry for hijacking your thread on this single point.

No problem. This is important stuff and I appreciate you and TBZ taking the time to voice your thoughts.

[TheLordOfTime]

This is a very good point, we will look for a way to warn existing Coinbase users who attach their wallet about this concern. Especially given the privacy we are trying to protect. We do feel though, that this concern would best be alleviated by a change in how Coinbase behaves.

I agree, ultimately Coinbase will need to address the issue, but in the interim, adding the extra disclaimer (if possible, either as an intermediate screen where a user must hit "Accept Terms" or "Reject Terms", or as a popup with "Accept" or "Reject" options) can at least help and prevent users from getting super annoyed about this, because not everyone knows Coinbase's system does that, so they'd be annoyed / surprised / angry / [insert other emotional response here] and might take that out on you or the other devs (if any) that you have working with you.

And we're appreciative that you are receptive to our thoughts!  Because that's a good sign: a support team that listens to the opinions of concerned users.

Now, since it's 02:06 and i've been up since 07:30 yesterday, I'm going to try and get some sleep.  Good night! 

[digit]

PM Sent