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+## Introduction
+
+**iron** is a cryptographic utility for sealing a JSON object using symmetric key encryption with message
+integrity verification. Or in other words, it lets you encrypt an object, send it around (in
+cookies, authentication credentials, etc.), then receive it back and decrypt it. The algorithm
+ensures that the message was not tampered with, and also provides a simple mechanism for password
+rotation.
+
+Note: the wire protocol has not changed since 1.x (the version increments reflected a change in
+the internal error format used by the module and by the node API as well as other node API changes).
+
+**iron** provides methods for encrypting an object, generating a message authentication code (MAC),
+and serializing both into a cookie / URI / HTTP header friendly format. Sealed objects are useful
+in cases where state has to reside on other applications not under your control, without exposing
+the details of this state to those application.
+
+For example, sealed objects allow you to encrypt the permissions granted to the authenticated user,
+store those permissions using a cookie, without worrying about someone modifying (or even knowing)
+what those permissions are. Any modification to the encrypted data will invalidate its integrity.
+
+The seal process follows these general steps:
+
+- generate encryption salt `saltE`
+- derive an encryption key `keyE` using `saltE` and a password
+- generate an integrity salt `saltI`
+- derive an integrity (HMAC) key `keyI` using `saltI` and the password
+- generate a random [initialization vector](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initialization_vector) `iv`
+- encrypt the serialized object string using `keyE` and `iv`
+- mac the encrypted object along with `saltE` and `iv`
+- concatenate `saltE`, `saltI`, `iv`, and the encrypted object into a URI-friendly string
+
+## Usage
+
+To seal an object:
+
+```javascript
+const obj = {
+    a: 1,
+    b: 2,
+    c: [3, 4, 5],
+    d: {
+        e: 'f'
+    }
+};
+
+const password = 'some_not_random_password_that_is_at_least_32_characters';
+
+try {
+    const sealed = await Iron.seal(obj, password, Iron.defaults);
+} catch (err) {
+    console.log(err.message);
+}
+```
+
+The result `sealed` object is a string which can be sent via cookies, URI query parameter, or an
+HTTP header attribute. To unseal the string:
+
+```javascript
+try {
+    const unsealed = await Iron.unseal(sealed, password, Iron.defaults);
+} catch (err) {
+    console.log(err.message);
+}
+```
+
+## Security Considerations
+
+The greatest sources of security risks are usually found not in **iron** but in the policies and
+procedures surrounding its use. Implementers are strongly encouraged to assess how this module
+addresses their security requirements. This section includes an incomplete list of security
+considerations that must be reviewed and understood before using **iron**.
+
+### Plaintext Storage of Credentials
+
+The **iron** password is only used to derive keys and is never sent or shared. However, in order to
+generate (and regenerate) the keys used to encrypt the object and compute the request MAC, the
+server must have access to the password in plaintext form. This is in contrast, for example, to
+modern operating systems, which store only a one-way hash of user credentials.
+
+If an attacker were to gain access to the password - or worse, to the server's database of all such
+password - he or she would be able to encrypt and decrypt any sealed object. Accordingly, it is
+critical that servers protect these passwords from unauthorized access.
+
+## Frequently Asked Questions
+
+### Where is the protocol specification?
+
+If you are looking for some prose explaining how all this works, there isn't any. **iron** is being
+developed as an open source project instead of a standard. In other words, the [code](/lib) is the
+specification. Not sure about something? Open an issue!
+
+### Is it done?
+
+Yep.
+
+### How come the defaults must be manually passed and not automatically applied?
+
+Because you should know what you are doing and explicitly set it. The options matter a lot to the
+security properties of the implementation. While reasonable defaults are provided, you still need
+to explicitly state you want to use them.
+
+## Acknowledgements
+
+Special thanks to Adam Barth for his infinite patience, and always insightful feedback and advice.
+
 ## Methods
 
 ### `await seal(object, password, options)`