Within minutes of posting #129402, I was asked by @DarthCoin why I didn't just try Impervious out for myself. He was right. I had been curious about it since Bitcoin 2022, so here are my first impressions:

I downloaded the Linux version and installed it on my laptop running Ubuntu 22.10. Installation was easy, and I was soon up and running.

When you open the application, Impervious looks like a conventional browser with a clean, uncluttered appearance. This surprised me, since I know it was cobbled together and contains many standalone components.

I first checked out the browser. The default search engine is Google, with Amazon, Bing, Duck Duck Go and Wikipedia as other options.

The browser is built on Firefox, so extensions are available through Mozilla. In fact, all of the settings options are identical to those found in Firefox.

Unfortunately, like Firefox, it is big and clunky, and eats up more of my old laptop’s RAM than Brave.

I next wandered down to the settings tab on the left side of the page, and clicked “Identity” . I was given the option to create my nickname and select my avatar, and this page contained my long form decentralized identity key.

I wanted to learn more about Decentralized Identity, or DID, and this article did a pretty good job of explaining it.

This was all very interesting, and the page was designed well. Unfortunately, it occurred to me that I simply don’t text or DM too many people, and my family and friends are all normies who would find it weird if I asked them for their decentralized identity. I personally have no use for this feature, but I can imagine it being used in organizational settings.

It was at this point that it dawned on me that the Impervious Browser is heavily geared towards collaborative settings, such as businesses and other formal or informal groups. The Meetings tab obviously emulates Zoom, but incorporates the DID identity protocol. This is a good thing in theory, but in practice I’m sure it becomes a little unwieldy. We all are willing to trade security for convenience in certain circumstances. At least I know I am.

Impervious video meetings wouldn’t have saved Jeffrey Toobin, since all the DID protections in the world won’t stop juicy human gossip, unlike Lightning node gossip.

Again, I don’t use video chat except with my wife if we’re apart, and there’s no way I’m going to convince her to set up her DID first.

Live Docs is another great idea for an organization or business. It is similar to collaborative Google docs or Microsoft office. This application strikes me as very useful, as most organizations can use added security regarding documents. Maybe those in high office could benefit from Impervious in helping to keep "Highly Classified" documents secure.

The next module I checked out was “Contacts.” The first thing I noticed was that it’s not a traditional contact database with values for addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses, etc. Once again the entry is built around the DID, and a contact cannot even be saved without one. Basically, there are inputs for a person’s name, a section to upload an avatar, and the block to enter the DID. That’s it. From this record, you can message or video chat the person, and you can share the record. Oddly enough, they prominently display a button to connect on twitter through an API contact integration, which seems to defeat the whole purpose to some extent.

I just connected Alby through a Firefox extension, so I can’t really judge how the lightning wallet works. I do know you are required to connect to a node.

Overall, I believe the Impervious Browser offers a lot more than what most people need right now. It also uses up a lot of my ram, and I don’t have much to spare. That being said, I am impressed with the ambition of the project, I understand there is nostr integration in the future, and Impervious might be ahead of its time. I’m going to keep playing around with it and see what the future brings.