Firstly, thanks for your detailed reply. > However its not that "pgp rides on email" it is that "email encryption rides on pgp" Doesn't it go both ways though

Firstly, thanks for your detailed reply. > However its not that "pgp rides on email" it is that "email encryption rides on pgp" Doesn't it go both ways though? The web-of-trust seems email focused, keyservers seem email focused. 'gpg --gen-key' straight up asks you to encode your email into the metadata. I guess bootstrapping on an existing network is always a pain point. What I was trying to highlight were the issues faced by 'partial adoption' of encryption, namely: A) It being cumbersome in the MUA and therefore likely to be ignored/disabled/complained about B) The myriad of ways for an OPSEC failure, or in common parlance, clicking the wrong button. If PGPMAIL or somesuch had eclipsed plain-old email, as Signal/WhatsApp have eclipsed SMS, then these issues could be resolved at the platform level.