Skiff Mail has been open-source since day one, and our engineering team has been hard at work to release changes that make it easier to run and contribute to Skiff Mail's web app. Now, anyone can contribute to Skiff's development - simply push up a pull request if you have a creative idea, feature suggestion, or bug fix.

To try out Skiff Mail immediately in your web browser, visit the code sandbox below:

https://codesandbox.io/p/github/skiff-org/skiff-apps/main

You can run, edit, and experiment with Skiff Mail all inside the Code Sandbox. However, local development (see instructions below) will likely be much faster if you intend to make larger changes.

Our process of creating a buildable version of Skiff Mail started from an 

, working in public encourages our users to not just trust us, but verify our code for themselves.

 - our cryptography and UI libraries - as MIT-licensed NPM packages for anyone to use. We’ve been appreciative of the tremendous response this has received from the Skiff community.

With this update, we hope to unlock the creativity and energy of our community - if you want to make a change to Skiff Mail or fix a bug, you can now do so immediately.

As an example, here’s Skiff Mail in “homebrew”-style colors, with the source code available on the 

Here’s what we recommend to get started in contributing to Skiff Mail.

Set up a development environment and run Skiff Mail locally. You can either follow instructions for local development in the 

, or edit directly in the cloud using our 

 section within the repository, and assign yourself if anything looks interesting. This is the fun part of tinkering with our codebase and solving an interesting technical problem.

When you’ve made your change, create a pull request with our 

, and assign someone from the Skiff team to review!

Once your pull request is approved, you’re all cleared to merge. 🚀

A: For now, we decided to mock most API calls and authentication for simplicity and reliability. In the future, we may consider offering a hosted API - please email us at 

 if you’re interested in being a beta tester for this.

A: There are not financial bounties yet, but we’re offering a year of the Essential Plan to anyone who closes a “good first issue.”

A: Yes! Any PR that is merged and goes through a design review will be released to the entire Skiff community, which is now over one million users.

Skiff’s community is full of enthusiasts who care deeply about open-source software, privacy, and freedom. Feel free to join our 

 for daily updates. If you have feature requests, you can also add them to our public feature 

. If you want to contribute, we hope this guide was helpful!

Contribute to Skiff Mail

In this tutorial, we’ll walk through ways to use Skiff to publish to and subscribe to Mirror.xyz creators. Whether you’re looking to publish a decentralized newsletter, or to crowdfund your next project on Mirror, using the same wallet integrated into Skiff Mail will yield critical utility for communication, subscription, and more.

 transforms the concept of a traditional blog or newsletter platform - like Medium or Substack - into one built on cryptocurrency, blockchains, and NFTs. Beyond a simple writing and publishing tool, Mirror allows writers to log in with their crypto wallets (Ethereum wallets on the Optimisim network), crowdfund ideas, and publish pieces as collectable NFTs that are stored in a decentralized manner. These NFTs provide a means for monetization, such as selling work in future auctions, which can also earn royalties. Furthermore, the Mirror DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) features works from different creators every week across Mirror’s site and social media profiles.

To join Mirror, you can connect an Ethereum wallet, such as MetaMask, Coinbase Wallet, Brave Wallet, or more - many excellent open-source alternatives exist. Mirror leverages wallet signatures as their authentication method for signing you into their product.

There are many reasons to write a blog or newsletter. For one, it's a great way to share your thoughts and ideas with the world. It's also a great way to connect with other like-minded people, and to build a community around your interests. Another reason to write a blog or newsletter is to build your credibility and authority on a certain topic. If you're an expert on a particular subject, writing a blog or newsletter is a great way to share your knowledge with others and to establish yourself as an expert in your field.

Finally, writing a blog or newsletter is a great way to promote your business or website. If you have something to sell, a blog or newsletter is a great platform to promote your products or services. Many popular Web3 products publish launches, whitepapers, releases, and other updates via Mirror, increasing visibility among like-minded individuals and maintaining a permanent record of their work via an NFT published on 

 (to learn more about decentralized storage, check out 

So, if you're looking for a way to share your thoughts and ideas with the world, to connect with other like-minded people, or to promote your business, writing a blog or newsletter is a great option; within the Web3 market, Mirror can be a great way to reach customers, users, and like-minded community members.

Recently, Mirror.xyz rolled out a feature wherein individuals can use email addresses to subscribe to particular content creators. This feature, which they called “

,” was designed to alert people of the arrival of a new update, such as a new post on mirror. However, as the announcement describes, Mirror saw this as a broader push into delivering content to people based on their wallet address, from updates and notifications to community groups.

To add your Skiff Mail address to a Mirror subscription, click the top right corner of a Mirror article, and press the “Subscribe” button. Then, as with all parts of Mirror’s publishing platform, you’ll need to connect your ETH wallet. Below your wallet address is a text field to enter in your email address, which can be added to receive subscription updates.

In this field, you can add a Skiff Mail address - either an @skiff.com alias, a wallet @skiff.com, or a custom domain address that you’ve set up.

As we wrote in our announcement of Skiff’s incorporation of 

, you can also use your ENS name at the address @ethereum.email (such as skiff.eth@ethereum.email), enabling you to receive Mirror subscriptions directly to your wallet’s Skiff mailbox address.

The functionality above connects disparate elements of web3 platforms for publishing, communication, and notifications all to an individual’s wallet. In the future, we’re hoping to build even deeper functionality into Skiff, where you won’t need to add an email to another product (here, Mirror), and click a verification link from your inbox when you already own your wallet address.

Already, integrating Mirror’s decentralized writing platform with Skiff is an exciting application of blockchain technology and decentralized tech to a real-world use case of publishing, newsletters, and community information sharing. Going forward, we hope even deeper, more trustworthy integrations exist across these crypto-based networks.

If you have questions, feel free to write to us at support@skiff.org, or to join our 

How can you use Skiff Mail with Mirror.xyz?

 to introduce the next frontier in Web3 communication. Today, we are giving users with Keplr wallets the ability to not only directly sign up for Skiff’s suite of privacy-first decentralized products, but also to claim their very own @keplr.xyz domain address to use within Skiff Mail and with the world.

Skiff is dedicated to making privacy-first and decentralized products more accessible and user-friendly. This is why Skiff has built a comprehensive privacy-first, end-to-end encrypted, and Web3-native decentralized platform.

 empowers users to communicate privately and confidently by connecting and linking their crypto wallets to an encrypted, secure, and private email address, allowing for the most comprehensive and efficient wallet to wallet communication available.

 lets users write and store sensitive information that can be easily shared with collaborators, without ever breaking client-side encryption. Users also have the option to store their pages on the InterPlanetary File System for a completely decentralized experience.

 enables users to store all their files, regardless of file type, on a privacy first, end-to-end encrypted platform. These files can be easily accessed, downloaded and, retrieved. All your files are encrypted on your device, and, if you choose stored on a decentralized network (IPFS), files remain end-to-end encrypted and censorship resistant.

Keplr is the first open-source, IBC-enabled wallet that was built from the ground up to support interoperability and the Interchain ecosystem.

Explore the world of interoperable blockchain applications from one wallet, and manage assets, stake tokens and collect rewards, participate in governance, access NFTs, and more.

Combining powerful features into one user-friendly interface, Keplr simplifies connecting blockchain applications for developers and empowers users to interact with the emerging ecosystem of interoperable blockchains.

 installed before displaying the Log in with Keplr button. If you don’t, you’ll still be able to log in with your username and password or any of our other wallet-based logins.

The next step is to verify that you actually own your Cosmos Hub address (we don’t want you to have any imposters!). Similar to 

, our server first generates a challenge token (called skiffLoginToken) for your wallet to sign.

Then, we use the Keplr API to sign the message using the 

 protocol. This signature is subsequently verified in order to claim the @keplr.xyz address, and if it passes we can safely assume that this is not an impersonation. We let you proceed to either creating a new account or logging into an existing one, depending on whether you’ve signed up.

 for you to use with your address and wallet. New custom domain, same end-to-end encryption. This new domain is only accessible to users who have signed an attestation to provide they have access to a particular Keplr wallet. This enables prviacy-first, trustworthy communication among users by significantly reducing the risk of impersonation or dishonest communications.

In building a platform for privacy-first, end-to-end encrypted, Web3 email, adding a distinct, verifiable address for every Keplr user builds credibility and trust for all communications in Web3.

Keplr Wallet: Web3 mail launch

Today, every Skiff user will be able to send and receive email via their Ethereum addresses using the domain @ethereum.email - securely, privately, and for free.

Below, we’ll walk through some basics on Ethereum (the network and cryptocurrency), the Ethereum Naming Service (ENS), how Skiff and Ethereum work together, and how you can start using your <wallet>@ethereum.email or <ENS>@ethereum.email today.

 by Vitalik Buterin, a cryptocurrency researcher and programmer. Buterin had been involved in the development of bitcoin prior to that, and his work on Ethereum started shortly thereafter. Development was funded by an 

 that took place between July and August 2014.

The main Ethereum software client was released in July 2015, and the Ethereum network went live on 30 July 2015. When Ethereum launched, 11.9 million coins had been “premined” for all participants in the crowdsale. This accounts for about 13 percent of the total circulating supply.

Mathematically, Ethereum uses the sec256k1 curve to generate public and private keys, which are subsequently used to generate Ethereum addresses. This curve was chosen because it provides a high degree of security while also 

. The secp256k1 curve is a finite field curve over the integers modulo a prime p defined by the equation y2 = x3 + 7. The security of the secp256k1 curve comes from the fact that it is very difficult to solve the elliptic curve discrete logarithm problem (ECDLP) over this curve.

Ethereum was initially described as a decentralized platform that would allow developers to build decentralized applications (dapps), which would be run on a decentralized network of computers (nodes). The main idea was to use blockchain technology to create a platform that would be more flexible than existing ones, such as bitcoin. Ethereum has been used in a wide variety of token sales, exchanges, 

NFT projects, and decentralized applications (dApps)

, raising over US$18 billion as of May 2018. Ethereum's smart contracts are based on different computer languages, which developers use to program their own functionalities.

Skiff’s mission is to deliver a private, end-to-end encrypted, and truly user owned ecosystem for collaboration and communication. In the last year, we’ve been privileged to work with the best partners across the Ethereum community building technology to empower individuals to own their own data - and be producers, not products.

, enabling tens of millions of people with MetaMask wallets to sign in to Skiff and collaborate using their wallet address or ENS name. Since then, we’ve collaborated with Brave, 

, the Ethereum Naming Service, Keplr Wallet, Unstoppable Domains, and 

 to bring the best technology in storage, wallets, identity, and security to Skiff.

Today, you can use an Ethereum wallet to sign up for a Skiff account, gaining access to end-to-end encrypted email, collaboration, and file sharing. If you use an ENS name for your account (read more below), you’ll be able to collaborate and communicate using that identity as well.

All of your verified wallet addresses - and their associated ENS names - can now send and receive mail using the domain @ethereum.email. For example, we at Skiff 

 the domain name skiff.eth using the address 0x0bc...ade6. Now, we’ll be able to send and receive email using this wallet address @ethereum.email, as well as skiff.eth@ethereum.email. You can also sign into Skiff’s 

 using this account to receive notifications and compose on the go.

Note that all emails sent or received using an ethereum.email address use a verified wallet address that has signed an attestation. As a result, this provides trustworthy and transparent communications to the Ethereum community.

 (ENS) is a decentralized naming system based on the Ethereumblockchain that can be used to resolve human-readable names to Ethereum addresses. ENS is designed to be censorship-resistant and to provide a more user-friendly experience than using traditional hexadecimal ETH addresses, which are long and difficult to remember. ENSdomain names are stored in the Ethereumblockchain and can be 

 like any other Ethereum asset. More recently, ENS has launched platforms for auctioning and bidding on domain names, and OpenSea also allows users to 

You can also now send and receive email via your ENS name at the email address ethereum.email. For more information on setting up and using your ENS name on Skiff, 

: applications that run exactly as programmed without any possibility of fraud or third party interference. Ethereum is a public blockchain-based distributed computing platform, featuring smart contract (scripting) functionality. It provides a decentralized virtual machine, the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), which can execute scripts using an international network of public nodes. Ethereum also provides a cryptocurrency token called "ether", which can be transferred between accounts and used to compensate participant nodes for computations performed. "Gas", an internal transaction pricing mechanism, is used to mitigate spam and allocate resources on the network and is used to price smart contracts.

Ethereum has since become one of the most popular blockchain platforms, with a wide range of decentralized apps built on top of it. These dapps cover a wide range of use cases, from financial applications and games to social networks and identity management. In the last year, DeFi (decentralized finance) has become particularly popular. Since the “Merge” event in 

, Ether is mined through a process called proof-of-stake, an energy-efficient way to commit resources to the Ethereum network and receive cryptocurrency as compensation.

Using an Ethereum wallet for email

Richard is a product engineer, working on the decentralized platform and partnerships at Skiff. He previously worked on compilers at Jane Street,  branching at Figma, and the revenue platform at Stripe. Richard holds degrees in Computer Science and Business from Berkeley's M.E.T. program.

Richard Liu