pgp / openpgp

pgp is the original encryption program; openpgp is the open standard it spawned - the message-signing and encryption system every market profile relies on.

pgp (pretty good privacy) is encryption software written by phil zimmermann in 1991, famously targeted by a criminal investigation over crypto export laws and released as free source code to dodge the case. openpgp is the standardized version of its message format, defined first in rfc 4880 and refreshed in 2024 by rfc 9580 - when vendors say "pgp key" today, the standard underneath is openpgp.

the model is asymmetric: each person has a public key to hand out and a private key to guard. encrypt to someone's public key and only they can read it; sign with your private key and anyone with your public key can prove it was you and that nothing changed in transit.

in this scene pgp is the identity backbone. vendor profiles publish public keys, order confirmations and announcements travel as signed messages, and login two-factor prompts ask for a decryption of a challenge. a vendor who cannot operate pgp is not a vendor you want holding your address.

everything on our tools menu - key generation, encrypt, decrypt, sign, verify - implements this standard entirely in your browser, so you can practice the whole workflow without a key ever leaving your machine.