ProtonMail and PayPal saga - continued

I wrote about the ProtonMail before, in connection with PayPal freezing the account, used for collection of Indie Go Go donations. Checking back some time later, I found that PayPal lifted the gate on the account. When pressed on reasons for freezing the account, PayPal blamed a "human error". The explanation looks fishy to me. But, even if it is true, there still is a fundamental problem, a problem, that I've pointed to before:

Reliance on PayPal, which is subject to regulation and legislative pressure, is the Achilles' heel that drags down ProtonMail

Think of it this way: even if the ProtonMail account was frozen due to human error, the incidents highlights the possibility for PayPal to do that at any time. No, PayPal, being good citizens, likely won't do that voluntarily. Would they have to freeze ProtonMail accounts if summoned to do so? Would they have to comply with requests from FBI, CIA, NSA or other body? I think that is likely. Do I believe in PayPal's best intentions to protect their clientele, i.e. ProtonMail in this case? Absolutely! However, make no mistake, when the question comes to protection of one client vs. loosing the business or affecting hundreds, thousands or million others the choice is likely to be very clear. Is it possible that PayPal finds itself in under treats to be shut down or comply? Yes. Check out the LavaBit story for a recent account of a company being shut down for standing up and backing it's users

I truly hope that ProtonMail learns the lesson and finds ways to eliminate dependencies on centralized services or infrastructure. Going peer-to-peer is the only viable path...