Moonfish: Ethereum-Encrypted Email

David Bressler -

This was a hectic week. I've just about scripted a powerful demo over at BCware, and prospects I've tried it on with are impressed! First week of school for the kiddos, and back at the dojo after a month away.

All-in though I came across something that I couldn't resist experimenting – encrypted email.

In 1997 or so, working for the same person I'm working for now in fact, we were experimenting with end-to-end encrypted messaging. I remember having my home computer (a desktop tower with a monitor as big as a mini-fridge) and my TIBCO laptop connected with cables strung everywhere. I was working with a team in Russia becasue at the time there was too much uncertainty about exporting cryptographic technology from the US.

End-to-end encryption is compelling.

And complicated.

Fortunately, a lot's changed in 25 years. Enter Moonfish.

Here's a description in the creator's own words:

Let me give it to you in plain-old-english.

Moonfish let's me connect my wallet to my email app, and then uses my Ethereum keys for encryption. Since encryption is end-to-end, it requires an initial step for each person you wish to setup encrypted communication with. Let me explain this, because that was a tough sentence to write clearly.

When I first set Moonfish up, I emailed Ronald (the creator). He replied to my message. That first sequence allowed Moonfish to capture each other's public keys. Done only once, you're good to go. I can imagine a few ways to make this easier over time and am excited by the possibilities.

An interesting side-effect / feature... if you have an email address on your ENS domain profile and your ENS name is in the wallet you connect to Mail, using Moonfish you can email ENS domains by swapping the '.' with an '@'. Bressler.eth emailed as bressler@eth resolves to my email address.

Moonfish runs as a plugin in Apple Mail on the Mac, so there's no mobile client yet.

Interestingly, if you poke around the settings, it's clear Ronald's ambition lies beyond email. Imagine any app connected to a wallet encrypting stuff simply.

Curious and want to learn more?

  1. Read the Moonfish background story
  2. Get on the waitlist
  3. Support their gitcoin grant application
  4. Read more about how it works (with screenshots)