Future Use Cases for Blockhain Technology: Distributed Email Services
Centralized Email Address Services Prone To Government Intrusion
Regardless of which email provider a consumer uses today, all of these services are centralized in their very own way. Let’s take internet service provider mailboxes, for example, which are complementary when signing a contract with one of these companies. They offer a handful of free mailboxes to the customer, but there are strings attached that are not known to the end user most of the time.
Secondly, all of these internet service providers have to answer to the government of their respective country. Assuming the government would ask the ISP to turn over all information on their users, including logs of certain mailboxes, there is nothing that can be done about it. Major companies, including ISPs, have to comply with government regulation, which is a particular worry for centralized services.
But even if the consumer would pick a different email provider, they are still not out of the woods. Even popular mail services such as Google’s Gmail are subject to regulation and privacy intrusion, both from the company itself and government officials around the world. Centralized services are not safe, nor secure, and should be avoided whenever possible.
Unfortunately for the everyday email user, the number of options is fairly limited outside of using centralized services. Granted, there are offshore email providers that operate in areas where there is no governmental influence from other nations. Then again, using such a service is usually associated with criminals, terrorists, and people who have something to hide in general.
Blockchain Technology to Create Decentralized Email Service?
A solution to the problem of centralized email providers might just be around the corner. Blockchain technology, the same that powers the Bitcoin network is quite versatile in terms of what can be achieved. In fact, there are thousands of possible applications for blockchain technology outside of the financial ecosystem.
Creating a decentralized distributed email service is one of those examples. The blockchain uses wallet addresses to identify Bitcoin users on the network, and the same ideology could be applied to email services. Issuing email addresses over the blockchain, and using the underlying technology to ensure communication, could create a whole new paradigm of online communication.
Unlike centralized email service providers such as Google or an ISP, email communication over the blockchain is not subject to governmental influence. There is no centralized server farm to take control of in order to gain access to personal records, as the entire system is decentralized and controlled by the individual users and network nodes.
Granted, it will take quite some time until such a system will be developed and made available to the public. But when Satoshi Nakamoto created Bitcoin, the underlying thought has always been to push adoption of blockchain technology for all kinds of different use cases. And if Bitcoin itself can benefit from that stimulated growth, all the better.
What are your thoughts on using blockchain technology for email communication? Let us know in the comments below!
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