We disagree, for whatever it's worth. To me, his mistake was in attempting to provide government-proof email without taking the time to build the expertise required to do so.
The Internet is littered with broken attempts at providing government-resistant messaging systems. They're a plague. There experts trying to deliver the same systems, but securely; they get drowned out because their UX isn't as smooth as that of Lavabit's --- which took full advantage of the UX benefits of total insecurity to get more users.
> To me, his mistake was in attempting to provide government-proof email without taking the time to build the expertise required to do so.
It is very hard to find someone who knows what he does not know. Much more capable people than Levinson have been bitten by that particular failure.
> There (are) experts trying to deliver the same systems, but securely; they get drowned out because their UX isn't as smooth as that of Lavabit's --- which took full advantage of the UX benefits of total insecurity to get more users.
Agreed. Conclusion: user experience counts. What I wonder is why those experts in crypto can't get their act together and deliver a user experience that's at least good enough not to get in the way of acceptance. Wherever there is a conflict between 'good crypto' and 'user experience' the crypto wins out in one product and the user experience wins out in another. Users overwhelmingly choose the packages with the good user experience and the bad crypto.
This may not be fixable in the case of conflicts but for many of the issues they may in fact be simply a matter of attention to detail, after all if the effort can be expended to make good crypto then a similar effort should go into the user experience since in the eyes of the users both are important. Delivering great crypto in an impractical package is a non-contribution.
That is going to be an uphill battle if the past is anything to go by.
The Internet is littered with broken attempts at providing government-resistant messaging systems. They're a plague. There experts trying to deliver the same systems, but securely; they get drowned out because their UX isn't as smooth as that of Lavabit's --- which took full advantage of the UX benefits of total insecurity to get more users.