Improving Matrix E2E encryption UX

When using end-to-end encryption without a centralized oracle, the mechanisms to distribute and verify keys are critical. Matrix.org is an non-profit open source project dedicated to creating and maintaining an open and secure global network for decentralised real-time communication. Its mission is to make encrypted decentralised open communication a basic human right: empowering users to choose which services they use to communicate without being fragmented and held hostage within proprietary communication silos. Matrix currently has over 1.8M addressable users, 2,800 deployments, and the Matrix.org server receives over 1.1M messages a day. One can consider Matrix an open real-time data fabric for the web, providing somewhere for users and devices to publish and persist arbitrary data that can be subscribed to as desired.

This project tries to fix the biggest blockers of E2E encryption, which partly lie with technology but partly also are due to overall UX issues. It solves various issues such as key sharing completion, making sure that E2E VoIP calls work. At the same time it will address user driven features such as the ability to request history from before the point you're invited to a room and have that safely decrypted for reading. Finally, the project will deal with better UX for displaying keyshare requests rather than modal popup, and delivering configurable paranoia levels per room.