[ih] Dark Internet Mail Environment (DIME)

[the keyboard of geoff goodfellow]

can anyone add any additional historical perspective and/or present status
of The Dark Mail effort might be other than what Grok is saying\|/?

"The Dark Mail project, announced in late 2013 by the Dark Mail Alliance
(founded by Lavabit and Silent Circle), aimed to create a new end-to-end
encrypted email protocol and architecture called the Dark Internet Mail
Environment (DIME). It sought to protect both message content and metadata
(like "To/From" fields and subjects) in a user-friendly way, addressing
limitations in existing systems like PGP and standard SMTP email. The
alliance raised funds via crowdfunding and planned to open-source the
technology to encourage widespread adoption.

The project evolved but didn't achieve broad industry adoption. Silent
Circle withdrew early, leaving Ladar Levison (Lavabit's founder) as the
primary driver by around 2016–2023. Specifications for DIME were released
(with revisions into at least 2015), and open-source components were
developed:

   - Magma (the reference email server supporting DIME features).
   - libdime (libraries and tools on GitHub).

In 2017, Levison relaunched Lavabit incorporating DIME for enhanced privacy
modes (including "Paranoid" mode, designed to resist subpoenas by ensuring
providers can't access plaintext emails or keys). DIME introduced concepts
like multiple encryption layers, signets for key management, and protocols
(DMAP/DMTP) to replace or augment IMAP/SMTP while maintaining compatibility.
As of late 2025, the Dark Mail Alliance appears largely inactive (its
website is outdated and focuses on Lavabit), and DIME hasn't become a
mainstream standard—email privacy has instead advanced through tools like
PGP improvements, Signal Protocol-inspired messaging, and services like
Proton Mail. However, the open-source code remains available on GitHub
under Lavabit's repositories, and Lavabit continues operating with DIME
support for users seeking high-privacy email. The project transitioned from
an ambitious alliance effort into a niche, ongoing open-source initiative
led by Levison, without the global rollout originally envisioned."

-- 
Geoff.Goodfellow at iconia.com
living as The Truth is True