How SMail works

SMail is email without passwords, where every sender is verified and every message is sealed on your own device. Here is what happens, step by step.

1. Your TrustChain wallet

The TrustChain wallet is a free app that holds your verifiable credentials: your identity credential first, later a licence, a degree or a membership. You sign up with your legal name as it appears on your ID. An accredited identity partner then checks your document in person: a national ID, Maisha card, passport, alien ID or refugee ID. Your wallet is locked with a PIN or fingerprint on your phone, and each phone has its own key.

2. Signing in

On the SMail sign-in page, open your wallet. It shows exactly what SMail will see: your verified display name, the type and issuer of your identity credential, and a one-account proof so one wallet gets one account. Your ID number, date of birth, address and private keys stay in the wallet. Approve, and you are in. On a computer, scan the QR code with your phone. Add a passkey on any device and the next sign-in is your fingerprint, face or screen lock.

3. Your address

The first time, you choose an address: [email protected]. It is yours; if you ever leave, it is reserved so no one else can take your name. You can add aliases later.

4. Your devices and keys

Each browser or phone you use registers its own signing key and encryption key, under its own signature. Mail is sealed to your devices' keys, so a new device starts without old mail until one of your devices shares the keys. You can see every device with your keys and remove one that is lost.

5. Writing and receiving

Mail between members is sealed on the sender's device, signed, and routed by the recipient's trust policy: a first message from someone you do not know waits in New verified contacts until you accept them. Mail from ordinary email addresses, if you keep the legacy gateway open, lands in a separate External tray marked unverified, with links disabled until you choose to open them.

To write to someone off SMail, send a secure link: the message is sealed on your device, the key exists only in the link, and a 6-digit code goes to them separately. Or switch on plain email: text only, confirmed each time, twenty a day.

6. Leaving

Export everything, built on your device. Delete your account with a fresh confirmation from your wallet. What SMail keeps and what it never sees is in the privacy notice.