Update README.md with more motivation background and new log
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README.md
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README.md
@@ -21,7 +21,33 @@ Most clients bolt PGP on as an afterthought — a plugin, a hidden setting, a th
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### Why Korax?
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Default mail apps (like Apple Mail) cannot read or compose PGP encrypted emails natively. Korax was born out of simple frustration: the inability to easily read encrypted emails (such as Kraken security alerts) out of the box. Instead of fighting with extensions, Korax provides a first-class, zero-friction PGP experience.
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Default mail apps (like Apple Mail) cannot read or compose PGP encrypted emails natively. Korax was born out of simple frustration: the inability to easily read encrypted emails (such as Kraken emails) out of the box. Instead of fighting with extensions, Korax provides a first-class, zero-friction PGP experience.
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## Motivation
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I started using email in the late 90s — around 1997. Back then it felt like magic: POP, SMTP over a dial-up modem, and nearly instant communication. My brother had moved to England, and for the first time we could exchange messages almost in real time. At the time, that felt revolutionary.
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Email was originally designed as a communication tool, not a secure system. Security simply wasn't part of the original architecture. Later, in the early 2000s, companies started trying to patch this problem with tools like PGP. At work we used Microsoft Exchange, and PGP was officially required for transmitting sensitive information. In reality, though, almost nobody enforced it consistently.
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More than 20 years later, the situation has not fundamentally changed.
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Yes, we now have TLS/SSL protecting connections “to the server.” But that does not solve the actual problem. Messages are still accessible at rest, still processable by providers, and still vulnerable to filtering or censorship. In some countries, emails containing PGP-related headers may even be blocked outright.
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Meanwhile, the need for secure communication has only increased. PGP is still actively used by platforms like Kraken and many other security-conscious services. The problem is usability.
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In practice, reading encrypted mail often still requires highly specific desktop setups. In my case, my Linux laptop running Evolution with GPG became the only device capable of reading encrypted email properly. Not my MacBook. Not mobile devices. Not while traveling.
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That completely breaks modern expectations of communication.
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Today, users expect access everywhere — desktop and mobile, at any time, on any device. But as soon as encryption enters the picture, the experience collapses back to the early 2000s.
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This project exists to close that gap.
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The goal is to build a PGP-first email client where:
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- encryption is a default capability, not an afterthought
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- key management does not require a separate toolchain
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- encrypted mail works naturally across desktop and mobile devices
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- usability does not have to be sacrificed for security
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---
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@@ -132,8 +158,23 @@ cargo build
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cargo test
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```
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**What stays proprietary:**
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### Openness Model
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This project is not fully open source. Some components are open, while others intentionally remain closed.
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This decision is practical, not ideological. The threat model includes not only traditional security risks, but also external pressure — including censorship, targeted blocking, and attempts to restrict infrastructure or communication channels.
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In some cases, fully transparent systems become easier to suppress systematically. The priority here is resilience and long-term operability under hostile conditions, not maximal openness at any cost.
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At the same time, the project maintains:
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- public client releases
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- transparent distribution channels
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- publicly accessible builds and binaries
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- openness around critical UX and cryptographic decisions where it is safe to do so
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The goal is to balance verifiability, usability, security, and resilience.
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**What stays proprietary:**
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The PGP/Sequoia integration, advanced privacy features, the proprietary Rust engine, and the Flutter UI (`korax/`) are not published.
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---
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