xgess / keybase_merkle_prover Goto Github PK

Interesting project! Timestamping Keybase messages is a great idea (although redundant). In the README.md it says

that uses OpenTimestamps to create proofs so the Keybase servers cannot present different merkle roots to different users (this would theoretically allow them to withhold information like Alice revoking a device). Keybase already does this (i.e. without OpenTimestamps), but I'm doing it in a different way with different tradeoffs (much more often - 20 minutes instead of 12 hours, and a different process to verify).

How exactly does this make it harder for Keybase servers to present different merkle roots to different users? How does this provide the same security properties that Keybase is already providing? What is stopping the adversary from simply timestamping multiple different merkle roots and presenting the corresponding proofs/hashes to different users?

(Disclaimer: I have only read the README)