Eppie — P2P mail, now with a graphical interface
What is Eppie?
Eppie is an encrypted, open-protocol email service that runs on a P2P network. It is currently in development. We have recently started gradually opening up the prototype to different countries and collecting feedback. In fact, that is exactly what we are here for, and we welcome new users. If you want to not only try it out, but also participate in beta testing, sign up on the waiting list.
Eppie's decentralized protocol ensures data privacy regardless of the level of trust in the developer, i.e. us, and gives the user true ownership of the account and data (we wrote about ownership here). Eppie will be able to receive messages from regular IMAP/SMTP email, as well as connect to several existing decentralized networks, such as Ethereum or Bitcoin. And we pay special attention to UX: we want the application to be intuitive for any user, regardless of technical background.
As for the technology stack, by default Eppie will store data in the IPFS infrastructure and use SBBS as a transport layer. But the architecture allows for easy connection of other storage and transport technologies. E2E encryption is based on elliptic curve cryptography. The GUI application is written in C# with Uno. The GUI only works on Windows for now, but macOS, Linux, iOS and Android will be supported later.
Where are we now
Decentralized messaging is already running on the testnet. But it’s not a real decentralized network yet — it’s just a few nodes that we host in the cloud. Meanwhile, Eppie functions as a regular email client, supporting the major email providers — Google, Microsoft Outlook, etc. The local account is created using a BIP39 seed phrase and is owned by the user. Additional security features include PGP support and the ability to authenticate against Proton Mail servers (which, as far as we know, no existing desktop client can do).
Here is a list of features available now:
Create a local account using a BIP39 seed phrase
PGP encryption support (WIP)
Connect any number of third-party email accounts (e.g. Gmail, Microsoft Outlook)
Connecting a Proton Mail Account
Create a local backup
Viewing mailboxes and reading messages
Writing and sending messages
New features will be added as the project develops.
Why You Should Try Eppie
This might be interesting for those who want to contribute to the development on GitHub — we'd love to hear from you! It's also an opportunity to be the first to try out the P2P functionality once it's ready. Finally, you can use Eppie as a regular email client along with Proton, Gmail, or Outlook.
How to use
Download the installer from the releases section at GitHub. There is currently a version for Windows only. Versions for other platforms will appear later, and we will write about them later.
To build Eppie from source, you will need Windows 10 or later.
Install Visual Studio 2022 with the following components:
Clone the repository:git clone --recursive https://github.com/Eppie-io/Eppie-App.git eppie-app
To build the project, open the file src/Eppie.App/Eppie.App.sln in Visual Studio.
Install Eppie.App.UWP as a starter project and select a platform x64. Run the build (Visual Studio Menu: Build ➤ Build Solution). To run the project, select Visual Studio Menu: Debug ➤ Start Debugging.
What else
We have already said above and will repeat again: we welcome any activity on GitHub. At the very least, give us a star – it's very valuable to us! Also, feel free to comment and ask questions. Thank you for your attention!
