Proton
OpenPGPjs email encryption library

OpenPGPjs is the world’s most popular open source JavaScript PGP email encryption library and is used by millions of end users and hundreds of developers.

We are happy to announce that Proton Mail will become the primary maintainer of the OpenPGPjs project(neues Fenster). We would like to thank Tankred Hase(neues Fenster), formerly the co-founder of whiteout.io, for his many years of effort developing the project as the previous maintainer, and we wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors. OpenPGPjs is a core part of Proton Mail, and we look forward to continuing to improve and extend it with the rest of the OpenPGPjs community.

What is OpenPGPjs?

OpenPGPjs is an open source email encryption library which powers the Proton Mail web application. It is a JavaScript implementation of OpenPGP (RFC 4880(neues Fenster)) which is the standard implementation of PGP email encryption. Proton Mail’s secure email service is based upon PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) because it is the world’s most trusted and reliable email encryption protocol. Since it was first formulated in 1991, PGP has undergone extensive peer review and scrutiny which makes it a good choice for securing email data.

In addition to Proton Mail, OpenPGPjs is used by the Mailvelope(neues Fenster) browser extension, GlobalLeaks(neues Fenster), and many other JavaScript PGP applications. Since originating from Recurity Labs(neues Fenster) in Berlin, OpenPGPjs has grown to become used by several million end users. We have been actively involved in improving OpenPGPjs for several years, mostly focusing our efforts on increasing performance. Proton Mail was a major contributor of code to the latest major version (2.x) of OpenPGPjs and thus was a natural choice to take over as primary maintainer of the project.

The future of email encryption with OpenPGPjs

Our primary mission at Proton Mail is the protection of privacy via widespread adoption of encrypted communications. We feel strongly that this requires a robust, performant, open-source PGP implementation in JavaScript, the language of the web. OpenPGPjs is that implementation, and we are committed to its continued development.

We are committed to open source cryptography and believe strongly that this is the only way to continue the development of Proton Mail’s encrypted email service. With OpenPGPjs as a base, we will soon be able to reach our goal of full PGP support within Proton Mail. We are committed to keeping the development of OpenPGPjs transparent and maintaining a high level of flexibility so it can be easily incorporated into other web projects that have a need for PGP encryption. To do this, we will need the continued support of the community, so we welcome pull requests and comments. We will also endeavor to provide a reasonable level of support to the OpenPGPjs developer community.

Going forward, we have a long list of additional improvements we would like to make to OpenPGPjs, and we will define a roadmap soon with the developer community. If you would like to participate, you can follow OpenPGPjs on Github and Twitter.

Github: https://github.com/openpgpjs/openpgpjs(neues Fenster)
Twitter: https://twitter.com/openpgpjs(neues Fenster)

Please consider supporting Proton Mail by upgrading to a Paid Account. Your support allows us to continue to develop Proton Mail encrypted email as free and open source software(neues Fenster).

Get a free secure email account

Verwandte Artikel

The cover image for a Proton Pass blog comparing SAML and OAuth as protocols for business protection
en
SAML and OAuth help your workers access your network securely, but what's the difference? Here's what you need to know.
Proton Lifetime Fundraiser 7th edition
en
Learn how to join our 2024 Lifetime Account Charity Fundraiser, your chance to win our most exclusive plan and fight for a better internet.
The cover image for a Proton Pass blog about zero trust security showing a dial marked 'zero trust' turned all the way to the right
en
Cybersecurity for businesses is harder than ever: find out how zero trust security can prevent data breaches within your business.
How to protect your inbox from an email extractor
en
  • Privatsphäre-Richtlinien
Learn how an email extractor works, why your email address is valuable, how to protect your inbox, and what to do if your email address is exposed.
How to whitelist an email address and keep important messages in your inbox
en
Find out what email whitelisting is, why it’s useful, how to whitelist email addresses on different platforms, and how Proton Mail can help.
The cover image for Proton blog about cyberthreats businesses will face in 2025, showing a webpage, a mask, and an error message hanging on a fishing hook
en
Thousands of businesses of all sizes were impacted by cybercrime in 2024. Here are the top cybersecurity threats we expect companies to face in 2025—and how Proton Pass can protect your business.