Thanks for the fast reply. I understand a decentralized robust system must have some costs, but is there at least an easy Android way to backup your username via a file just like Bitcoin? Needing to have two devices just to backup is an overkill IMO especially that in Beta app failure is common. What's especially frustrating for me is I still have the password, but because the lack of synchronization it's no good to retrieve my nick.
That said I don't know if it's technically feasible to incorporate a username expiration feature eg. if a username's last seen date by the network is 6+ months ago the network would revoke its RingID, allowing its recycling. Otherwise it'd be a matter of time before easy and popular usernames are reserved to people who are unable or uninterested in using them. On Sun, Jan 1, 2017, at 02:43 AM, Bruno Pagani wrote: > Hi, > > Le 01/01/2017 à 00:33, AHIB a écrit : > > Android user here. I registered an account on the network and tested a > > couple of calls with Ring, but after a while it would crash upon opening > > despite a restart so I uninstalled it. Upon reinstalling I tried to > > register the same nick using the same password but it keeps saying username > > already taken and asks for some PIN(?). Does that essentially mean if one > > was to uninstall Ring or lose his device or ROM that his account is > > permanently lost? Because it'd be crazy if that happens after a year of > > using the app with dozens of contacts suddenly lost. > > Unless you have a backup or have configured your account on another > device, yes, you’ve lost it. Ring is a totally decentralized system, > which means they are no server holding your account data, those are on > your device(s). The PIN thing is here for that: allow you to copy your > account on a different device, which is one great thing the SFL team did > to solve (at least) two challenges at once, namely being able to use > your account on different device and allow an easy backup of it (if you > switch phones, just have to copy your account from your desktop or even > previous phone if still at hand using the built-in feature). > > The nickname part rely on a blockchain, once an user register a nickname > no one else can register it again, and it can’t be unregistered either > AFAIU. So, if the account that was linked to this username is lost, the > username is too. > > High levels of privacy, security and resilience have costs, and this is > one of them. And outside of those considerations, backups are always a > good idea. ;) > > Bruno > > Email had 1 attachment: > + signature.asc > 1k (application/pgp-signature) -- http://www.fastmail.com - IMAP accessible web-mail
