Can bitcoin stop the NSA from reading our mail?

[Taras]

We can sign a message using our private key, which can then be verified to have been signed by the owner of the key.
Can we encrypt a message with only a bitcoin address so that only the owner of the private key of that address can decrypt the digest?

[beetcoin]

We can sign a message using our private key, which can then be verified to have been signed by the owner of the key.
Can we encrypt a message with only a bitcoin address so that only the owner of the private key of that address can decrypt the digest?

you can already communicate with someone without having the NSA intervene.. it's PGP encryption... which is what i believe SR has been using for shipping info.

[grue]

We can sign a message using our private key, which can then be verified to have been signed by the owner of the key.
Can we encrypt a message with only a bitcoin address so that only the owner of the private key of that address can decrypt the digest?

PGP already does that. the only change in your idea is using bitcoin addresses as keys.

[Littleshop]

We can sign a message using our private key, which can then be verified to have been signed by the owner of the key.
Can we encrypt a message with only a bitcoin address so that only the owner of the private key of that address can decrypt the digest?

PGP already does that. the only change in your idea is using bitcoin addresses as keys.

Which could make them MORE traceable. 

[Cubic Earth]

I have an idea to basically put a bitcoin bounty in an email message, or in between layers of encryption.  There could even be a company that offers this as a service.  The idea would be that if the message was compromised, whomever broke the encryption would have access to the bitcoin.  They could choose not to redeem the private key, and in that instance you wouldn't know that the message had been compromised.  But in general, if bitcoins are going missing, than you would know the system was not secure.

It's more of a leak test than anything else.  But if the bounty is big enough, and no bitcoins are getting stolen, it would be a pretty strong signal the system is secure.  I was stoned when I thought of it, and now some of the details have faded.

[jdbtracker]

There is a solution to that, Bitmessage. it is a message service that uses a blockchain, everyone sees what is coming in but only the person with the key can unlock it... no one knows who sent it or who received it. It is pretty cool try it out.

bitmessage.org