Glossary

You don't need any of these to use MailGate, but here's what the words mean when you run into them.

Sui

The blockchain MailGate is built on. In MailGate, your account is an object on Sui, which is why no single company can shut it off or silently change it. You never interact with Sui directly — MailGate handles it and sponsors the fees.

Seal

The encryption system that protects your mail. Its trick: your email address itself is the encryption identity, so anyone can encrypt a message to you with no key exchange, but only your account can decrypt it. Crucially, no single party holds a key that can read everyone's mail.

TEE / Enclave

A Trusted Execution Environment — a sealed, tamper-evident environment where the encryption keys are handled. Think of it as a locked vault whose exact contents are checked against the blockchain before anyone trusts it. It's why MailGate can say the operators cannot read your mail.

Nautilus / Nitro

The specific secure-enclave technology MailGate runs its key handling inside. The enclave's software fingerprint is pinned on-chain, so if the code running it ever changed, the system would refuse to trust it. You can treat "Nautilus", "Nitro", and "the enclave" as the same thing for practical purposes.

Toll

The amount an unknown sender pays to land in your inbox. You set it. Contacts/whitelisted senders never pay it; blacklisted senders are blocked outright. Toll revenue accrues to your balance.

Custodial vs Self-custody

• Custodial — you signed up with email/password; your keys are protected for you in the enclave.
• Self-custody — you signed up with a Sui wallet; you hold the keys yourself.

See Custodial wallet basics.

Whitelist / Blacklist

• Whitelist — approved senders who reach you free, no toll. Your contacts sync here automatically.
• Blacklist — senders rejected before storage; you never see their mail.

Delegate / Agent

An automated helper you grant a limited set of permissions (Read, Send, Contacts, Gating, Toll). It acts only within those limits, and its actions are logged. See Agents & automation.

Gas / Gas sponsorship

"Gas" is the fee blockchains normally charge for an action. MailGate sponsors all of yours, so you never need to hold or spend crypto just to use email.

USDC

A US-dollar stablecoin. One of the two ways a sender can pay your toll (the other is a regular card payment via Stripe).

Walrus

A decentralized blob-storage network. It's the planned future home for encrypted email bodies and attachments (today they're on conventional encrypted cloud storage). It doesn't change anything you do.