GPG has a massive "last mile" problem.
I suspect that people would gladly accept the ability to send and receive encrypted, signed emails, but the hassle factor of getting set up is simply too high.
I suspect that people would gladly accept the ability to send and receive encrypted, signed emails, but the hassle factor of getting set up is simply too high.
In the computer tech world, we do rank ourselves. We post w3c validation badges on our page, we run our sites through ssllabs.com for a security report card. We work towards being an IPv6 Sage from he.net. So why not a GPG contest? Keybase might be a good site to organize such things.
Generate a key and upload it to a keyserver is a basic level. You key can be graded based on bits (1024 vs 2048 vs 4096) and algorithm chosen. Send an encrypted email awards more points. Send a signed message for more points. Receive an encrypted message (and respond with the unencrypted text) is more points. Receive 3 emails and reply to the one that is properly signed for more points.
At some point in your journey you can start socializing. Advertise on your blog/github/keybase/social media that you are participating in a gpg contact contest. People can send you signed messages, you can send to them. You both sign and forward the message to keybase, who uses the signature to validate both of you exchanged messages with gpg. Keybase could even provide uuid/tokens to hand out (encrypted) and further validate. The more gpg contacts you accumulate, the higher your score. The "worked all states" from ham radio could be an achievement in gpg contesting as well.
I've been looking at truly peer to peer communication systems to use on an amateur radio mesh network with no internet access. The best solutions have encryption baked in. I would have to get a major project going to rip the encryption aspect out in order to use them on amateur frequencies/amateur power levels.
What's great about this guide and approach, is that it works in any text field, including webmail.