Proposal to remove plaintext sender key

proposals/4381-remove-plaintext-sender-key.md

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+# MSC4381: Remove plaintext sender key
+[MSC3700] deprecated the plaintext `sender_key` and `device_id` fields in events
+encrypted with the `m.megolm.v1.aes-sha2` algorithm. For backwards compatibility
+reasons, sending the fields is still recommended. The deprecation was merged
+over 3 years ago and released as a part of Matrix v1.3.
+
+[MSC3700]: https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-spec-proposals/pull/3700
+
+## Proposal
+This proposal removes the `sender_key` and `device_id` fields in events
+encrypted with the `m.megolm.v1.aes-sha2` algorithm. Clients SHOULD NOT include
+the fields in new messages anymore.
+
+## Potential issues
+Clients that haven't been updated in years may still rely on the deprecated
+fields. However, there is a good chance that such clients will also be affected
+by the upcoming exclusion of unverified devices.
+
+As mentioned in [MSC3700], this will make debugging encryption issues harder.
+
+## Alternatives
+Deprecated fields are meant to be removed eventually, so the only real
+alternatives are un-deprecating the fields or switching away from Megolm
+entirely.
+
+## Security considerations
+There are only benefits in terms of security, as removing the fields will
+realize the privacy and security benefits mentioned in [MSC3700].