Lavaboom Declares Bankruptcy; Shuts Down Next Week

[Jack]

Encrypted e-mail provider Lavaboom has declared bankruptcy and will shut down next week.

Lavaboom, a German startup that was building a zero access secure email service that focused on simplifying PGP encryption security to target a more mainstream user-base, is shutting down and filing for bankruptcy.

Co-founder and CEO Felix Müller-Irion told TechCrunch Lavaboom intends to continue running its services until next week to allow time for users to migrate their data to another encrypted email provider — name-checking Tutanota and Whiteout Mail as possible alternatives.

Speculation about the fate of the startup had ramped up in the past few days, after a post on Reddit by an ex-Lavaboom developer claiming the startup had run out of money. Rival encrypted email service provider Protonmail also blogged about receiving concerned emails from Lavaboom users looking to migrate to another service.

Müller-Irion says Lavaboom has some 12,000 registered users in all — although, given the zero access architecture, the team can’t tell how many are using the service. “What we can measure is the output of emails send through our system which is about 1.5 per second,” he adds.

Why the shut down? Müller-Irion says the problems were two-fold: firstly relating to cash-flow, including the team having to reduce expenses after a failed crowdfunding campaign — “I was faced with a few tough decisions,” he says — although he also confirms he had raised a total of around €280,000 from an undisclosed investor.

Presumably the team burnt through that money during the development process — so questions about how well the funds were managed clearly remain. According to Crunchbase Lavaboom was founded last year, at the start of June, so it’s crashing and burning in a little over a year.

Sad to see Lavabit's spiritual successor shutdown.

[Berenburger]

Originally Posted by Jack

Encrypted e-mail provider Lavaboom has declared bankruptcy and will shut down next week.

Sad to see Lavabit's spiritual successor shutdown.

I've thought that was DarkMail (https://darkmail.info).

[popowich]

Please consider SCRYPTmail as an alternative to Lavaboom.

I'm awaiting a profile update from Edwin.

FD: I addition to Email Questions I also represent SCRYPTmail.

[zimmermanfan]

Originally Posted by popowich

Please consider SCRYPTmail as an alternative to Lavaboom.

I'm awaiting a profile update from Edwin.

FD: I addition to Email Questions I also represent SCRYPTmail.

I don't think scryptmail can be a lavaboom replacement. Lavaboom used PGP keys, no? Scryptmail does not, or certainly there does not appear to be a way to access the keyring from the webpage.

Although I could not fully explore the webpage because my browser gives "This Connection is Untrusted" (which means there's something wrong with how scryptmail has formed their SSL certs).

Also, scryptmail blocks tor. An e-mail provider that blocks tor isn't really on the right side of privacy.

[popowich]

Lavaboom used PGP keys, no? Scryptmail does not, or certainly there does not appear to be a way to access the keyring from the webpage.

SCRYPTmail has and will continue to use PGP keys.

Here are screen shots from the new settings pages:

http://www.emailquestions.com/thread...e-2#post-25520

Although I could not fully explore the webpage because my browser gives "This Connection is Untrusted" (which means there's something wrong with how scryptmail has formed their SSL certs).

Which URL and web browser & O/S are you using? I can not reproduce problems or find a sign of a problem using the SSL tester that gives SCRYPTmail an A+ :

https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/anal...ail.com&latest

Also, scryptmail blocks tor. An e-mail provider that blocks tor isn't really on the right side of privacy.

SCRYPTmail does not intentionally block Tor. I consider this a bug that needs to be fixed. I don't have an ETA offhand but I'll find out if it's most likely 2015 or 2016.

[zimmermanfan]

Originally Posted by popowich

Which URL and web browser & O/S are you using?

Debian stable with the latest iceweasel for the distro. Simply clicking the "FaQ" link triggers the flaw.

Originally Posted by popowich

SCRYPTmail does not intentionally block Tor. I consider this a bug that needs to be fixed. I don't have an ETA offhand but I'll find out if it's most likely 2015 or 2016.

The website is fine with tor - which is paramount.

But tor senders cannot have scryptmail recipients. A simple test is to run "torsocks telnet 30308973.in1.mandrillapp.com 25". It actually just connected for me, so it's apparently hit/miss. Maybe I used an exit node that blocked port 25 the frist time I tried.

[popowich]

Originally Posted by zimmermanfan

Simply clicking the "FaQ" link triggers the flaw.

Do you mean the Q&A page?

https://blog.scryptmail.com/q-a/

[popowich]

I see the blog site scores a B. I started bug tracking for it. We'll get it fixed.