Email is one of the basic method of communication within the internet. But is riddled with some of the very basic problems of identity. Following are the problems of email protocol -
1. The problem of lack of ownership.
In the digital realm, e-mail has become the pseudo identity of the person. It's not wrong to for email to become the identity of the person but the ease of creation of the email is a problem along with technology associated to send emails without actual verification of the identity of the sender. We while receiving an email implicitly assume that the mail is coming from a legitimate source. Additional layers of technology are built on top to ensure the security of the message but at times, they also do not provide security against a fraudulent sender.
2. The problem of SPAM.
Since mail address is public in nature anyone about the knowledge of the mail address can send the email with or without the consent of the user, leading to an unwanted influx of messages without actual need of the messages.
3. The problem of impersonation.
The inherent nature of the E-Mail protocol is communication with no inbuilt element of trust linked to identity, creating a dark area where a fraudster can impersonate as a legitimate entity and can inflict damage to the victim. This method is primarily associated to Phishing but not limited to phishing scams.
5. The problem of control.
The Email protocol is primarily having a centralized structure where sender and receiver refer to a central server to host and store E-mails of the users. This leaves mail server vulnerable where controller / admin of mail server can virtually read all the mail with direct or indirect intervention.
The ideal solution for decentralised communication would be as follows.
- Extend the use of Self-Sovereign identity to communications.
- Connections between identities are made by consent and messages are shared amongst connected identitites only.
- Messages are held by the individual not stored with any central party. (Either in open/Private domain and with/without encryption)
The ideal means to achieve goals of decentralized communication would be.
- Blockchain backed identity.
- Smart-Contract to hold connection registry.
- P2P Filesystem.
Credits
- Vitalik Butterin & Ethereum Team for making Ethereum.
- Juan Benet for making IPFS.
- Christopher Allen & of Team of ID2020 for making this event feasible.
By Harsh Patel