Can we do requirements before technology?
The weaknesses I see in the existing technology are:
* Limited to SMTP email.
* Identified doesn't have control over the identifier.
* Identifier can be stale
I don't like the idea of IETF giving out email accounts, that would be a point solution, not a general case solution. So lets add in another requirement:
* Identifier must be global
There are basically two types of identifier we can apply here:
* Human readable
* Fingerprints of public keys
The pattern Blue Sky have adopted for ATprotocol seems to be a good way to overcome the limitations of each. The permanent identifier is a fingerprint of a public key controlled by the user, but there is a human readable label for ease of use.
Taking a step back from the idea that the author contact is an SMTP address, a better approach would be to have it be a means of getting a contact card for the author.
The approach I am currently working on is based on JSContact with some extensions so that Alice only needs to use the human readable identifier for an initial contact exchange, JSContact format is extended so it has information to locate and validate updates.
Not sure how far we would want to go down the updates route. Sure, I can do the Merkle tree thing, got all the code. But I am not sure it is essential.
On Fri, Apr 4, 2025 at 12:34 PM Miles Fidelman <mfidelman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Salz, Rich wrote:
I'm thinking that IPNS & IPFS make for a good platform for universal id & mailboxes. Add to that a blockchain & certification service - to allow binding legal & financial identities to specific self-published identities - then we can just each publish a "shingle" to IPFS space, and an IPNS record that points to a maildrop file.I don’t think it’s a good use of IETF resources to provide email accounts for over a thousand people.
Then all we need are SMTP clients that can read & write to IPFS files.
Just a thought.
Miles
-- In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is. .... Yogi Berra Theory is when you know everything but nothing works. Practice is when everything works but no one knows why. In our lab, theory and practice are combined: nothing works and no one knows why. ... unknown
