MagicWishMonkey

How exactly is the dark mail protocol going to be compatible with existing email systems? If I send my grandma an email to her aol account will she be able to read it?

Here's a link to the dark mail kickstarter for anyone who may be interested: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ladar/lavabits-dark-mail-initiative

Will darkmail subscribers have the ability to plug their darkmail account into an email client such as Outlook/Thunderbird/whatever?

Your bank absolutely DOES have a single SSL key used for all visitors (both guests and people who log in for online banking), this is how SSL was designed to work.

Building your system in such a way that would require everyone to create their own certificate would make your site completely unsuitable for the average user. Most people have no idea what an SSL key is, they certainly wouldn't be capable of generating one on their own.

He wasn't willingly selling snake oil, you're basically holding him at fault for providing an email service that works within the confines of existing email technology. You are a great example of everything that is wrong with the software development community. No matter what you do, there's always some asshole out there who wants to tear you down for it.