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Modern email can be built from borrowed parts

22 pointsby androstoday at 8:27 AM4 commentsview on HN

Comments

ameliustoday at 11:07 AM

> First-contact consent: an unknown sender doesn't get into the mailbox; they land in a "requests" box with their first message visible (like Signal's message requests). You accept, and the thread opens forever. A stranger can knock on your door, which is the essential property of mail, but they can't fill up your living room.

I like this.

Question: can this e-mail specification/implementation also replace direct-messaging protocols (like WhatsApp)?

show 3 replies
syholtoday at 11:43 AM

I'm very excited by this idea. I feel like email/chat is ripe for reinvention.

I don't agree with "Domain control as a fallback", as the author said "a domain is not owned, it is rented" and I want to normalise the idea that if you lose your private key, you need to start again. I hate that we keep giving so much authority to domains, it's such a big weakness. The author even left the key rotation chain out of the initial implementation.

I still think root/signer keys or sigchains are decent options.