Guides/Open source
Why encryption software should be open source, eventually
The gold standard for encryption is source you can read. Elba's whole program is inside the HTML file today, and its license becomes MIT on 1 January 2030 — freed, not disabled.
Visible source now, free-and-open in 2030
Today, anyone can open Elba.html in a text editor and read the entire tool. In 2030, that source becomes MIT-licensed — anyone can fork, ship, and modify.
Why the delay
Because someone has to be paid to make the tool. A few years of one-time purchases fund careful maintenance; the mortalware date guarantees the tool outlives the company.
Questions people actually ask
- Can I audit Elba today?
- Yes. Open the HTML file in a text editor. That's the whole program.
- What if the makers vanish before 2030?
- The 2030 open-source date is written into the license itself; the source is already in your copy of the file.
Take the island
Elba is one HTML file. It runs locally in a Chromium browser, seals a folder with AES-256-GCM, never phones home, and becomes open source on 1 January 2030.
- €49MMXXVI· now ·
- €39MMXXVII2027
- €29MMXXVIII2028
- €19MMXXIX2029
- FreeMMXXX2030
the price falls each year · free to all 1 jan 2030
pay once · no account · nothing leavesRelated guides
- What is mortalware? Software that dies into the commons
Mortalware is software with a release date — a scheduled transition from paid to free-and-open. Elba's mortalware plan explained.
- Software that becomes free over time (and why that's the point)
A short case for software with a scheduled, declining price that reaches zero. Elba's price falls every year until it's free in 2030.
- Sovereign computing tools: owning a room in your own machine
Sovereign computing means the machine, the data, and the tool all answer to you. A short field guide, with Elba as an example.