Lavabit creator Ladar Levison has launched a Kickstarter campaign for the dark mail encrypted email initiative he’s working on in partnership with Silent Circle.

The project is looking to raise $196,608 to take the Lavabit source code and turn it into a free and open-source project with the new dark mail protocol. Dark mail is intended to provide a next-generation form of email with end-to-end encryption. If successful, the campaign will include the creation of the first dark mail clients for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and iOS.

Levison shut down his secure email service, which is believed to have been used by NSA leaker Edward Snowden, after receiving pressure from the US government to turn over Lavabit’s encryption keys. Silent Circle also closed down in August over concerns that the NSA might come for its data.

➤ Dark Mail Initiative [Kickstarter]

Thumbnail credit: Shutterstock / Jetrel

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