Decentralized email

Decentralized email

Welcome to Hoken Tech.


If we consider the blockchain as only a technological layer, we see that this technology is able to provide us with a solid, decentralized, distributed and secure structure for exchanging information between one or more users.


One thing that unites almost all people on Earth is certainly email, which despite its age, continues to be part of our lives and has become indispensable for receiving any type of communication, from the most important ones related to banks, insurance, school / university and work, up to spam mail and scams.

How email works

The functioning of email is based on a standard protocol called SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol), which allows sending emails from one server to another, and on a retrieval protocol called POP (Post Office Protocol) or IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol), which allows users to download emails from the mail server.


When the user sends the email, the sender's mail server sends it to the recipient's mail server via the SMTP protocol. The recipient's mail server receives the email and deposits it in the recipient's mailbox.


To access the mailbox and read the emails, the user must use an email client, such as Outlook, Gmail or Thunderbird, and here the mail client connects to the recipient's mail server via the POP or IMAP protocol and downloads the emails present in the mailbox.


Email was invented in the 1960s by Ray Tomlinson, a U.S. computer engineer, he also was the first to use the @ symbol to separate the recipient's name from the mail server's name, instead the first email in history was sent in 1971 by Tomlinson himself to a college working.


In the 1980s, email became an increasingly widespread communication tool, especially in the business world, while in the 1990s the first free email services were introduced, such as Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail, which made email accessible to non-professionals as well.

Email security

Despite email being a very useful communication tool, there are also problems related to the security of traditional emails.


One of the main problems of email security is the possibility that messages may be intercepted by hackers or other malicious people and this can happen if the email is sent without encryption, which is a system for encoding data that protects the information contained in the message from unwanted readings, in fact in this case, the message can be intercepted by anyone who has access to the communication network and could be used to steal personal or business information.


Another problem related to email security is the sending of spam, i.e. unsolicited and often advertising messages as these messages can clog the user's mailbox, causing a slowdown of the system and an increase in the likelihood of losing important emails.


Furthermore, the spread of computer viruses via email is an ever-present problem, because these viruses can be hidden in attachments or links in the messages, and can damage the user's computer or network.


Another critical aspect of email security is the possible falsification of the sender's email address, a technique known as phishing, where the hacker sends an email that appears to come from a reputable organization, such as a bank or company, asking the user to enter personal information such as passwords, credit card numbers or bank information, but in reality, the message has been sent by a hacker who aims to steal sensitive information.

Email on blockchain

A blockchain-based email service offers numerous advantages over traditional emails, particularly regarding the security and privacy of users' data.


First of all, an email service based on blockchain uses blockchain technology to guarantee immunity from hacker attacks or other malicious users because the blockchain is a technology that allows the creation of decentralized digital records, i.e. a series of information blocks shared between all users of the network, in which these blocks are protected by cryptographic algorithms that guarantee their integrity and security and therefore a blockchain-based email service can protect users' emails from interception and theft of data.


In addition, an email service on blockchain ensures the anonymity of users, this is because the blockchain allows the creation of anonymous user accounts (since the public address of the blockchain is exploited and not a name), i.e. accounts without personal information that can be used to send and receive emails and in this way, users can maintain their privacy and protect their personal information.


Another advantage of the blockchain email service is its resistance to service disruptions, because in a blockchain network, data is replicated in a distributed manner between the nodes of the network, which means that there is no single point of failure, this makes the blockchain-based email service very robust and reliable, reducing the risk of data loss or service interruptions.


In addition, a blockchain-based email service can also make advertising and monetization of emails more effective, because thanks to the decentralized nature of the blockchain, users can choose to sell or share their data with companies or other users, obtaining incentives in return.

Finally, an email service based on blockchain can also allow the creation of a community of users with common interests, who can exchange information and content securely and protected and this can be particularly useful for communities of users who need to exchange sensitive information, for example in the health or financial sector.


In summary, a blockchain-based email service offers numerous advantages over traditional emails, particularly regarding security, privacy, resistance to service disruptions and the management of advertising and monetization of emails and thanks to the decentralized nature of the blockchain, users can benefit from a more secure and personalized email service, with the ability to choose how to share their information and participate in communities of users with similar interests.

How email on blockchain works

To create an email service on blockchain you basically need 2 things, a smart contract that handles the messaging part on the blockchain, and a graphical interface that allows the user to receive and send messages.


Of course, creating such a service on blockchain involves a huge gas expense if non-performant blockchains are used, but by exploiting fast and economical EVM blockchains, like the EOS EVM, then the whole process becomes simpler and cheaper.


And Hoken Tech has exploited precisely the EOS EVM to create a functional prototype of a blockchain email service, reachable at this address.


The page is presented in a clean way, with the name of the service and the simple button to connect our wallet:

Hoken Tech - EOSMail

So we press the relative button and through the MetaMask wallet, we can connect our address to the service:

Hoken Tech - EOSMail login

Once inside, we will find an interface very similar to what we are used to seeing and here we will have everything at our fingertips:

Hoken Tech - EOSMail dashboard

How to send a decentralized email

At this point let's try to send an email to another address and test everything, and we will see that the operation has a disarming ease and within the reach of everyone, because it is enough to click on the "Compose" button at the top left, and in the bottom right we will have to complete the fields, that is the recipient, the subject of the email and the content:

Hoken Tech - EOSMail send email

The last step is to click the "Send" button and confirm the transaction with our wallet:

Hoken Tech - EOSMail fee

And here we have that with just $0.03 we sent our mail to the recipient, and the cost incurred is that related to the use of the blockchain, which by the way puts a barrier both to criminals and to the unchecked spam that our mailboxes are inundated with daily.

How to receive and read a decentralized email

Conversely, if we wanted to receive a decentralized email, we must provide our public address to the sender, so as soon as they send the email, we will find it in our decentralized mailbox, and we could read it:

Hoken Tech - EOSMail receiver

Once we open the email here we could read the entire message and reply or forward the content to another address:

Hoken Tech - EOSMail read email

Conclusions

Although this is a small prototype, it is sufficient to demonstrate the power of the blockchain and how the latter could be easily integrated into almost all the digital services that we traditionally all use, like email.

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