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Email is a decentralized protocol and the fact that you use a centralized provider such as gmail only somewhat defeats the purpose of email being a decentralize

Email is a decentralized protocol and the fact that you use a centralized provider such as gmail only somewhat defeats the purpose of email being a decentralized protocol instead of Google Messenger.

ralston3 4y ago
Email is _a bit_ similar, but the analogy doesn't work too well. While email might be a decentralized protocol, participation in the protocol requires quite a bit of technical effort. Whereas in crypto (e.g., Bitcoin) you can participate by just downloading a simple client and sending transactions via a nice little UI. In your example, Google actually provides a pretty huge value add by abstracting the complexities of participating in the email protocol away from the user. Crypto protocols (insofar as the assets provided by Coinbase) don't really get _that_ complex
- svachalek 4y ago
  It's even weirder than that, it's like if Google received your messages for you and bundled them up with everyone else's, then allowed you to read your share of the bundle but never actually delivered them to you as far as the protocol is concerned. The email protocol isn't complicated though. Back before spam was a thing, lots of people could just open a port and manually talk SMTP (you could send messages as Santa, or whatever). The only service Gmail provides that's not trivial (and I mean, something that can be done in a whiteboard interview) is the spam protection.
  - fragmede 4y ago
    With the accessibility of ML these days, I'm less convinced that spam protection is that hard, if you have a little bit of patience. The spam I get is repetitive and bad, and I get enough of it that I think I could get a workable model simply by using Gmail's spam tagging to train it.
    - SAI_Peregrinus 4y ago
      Back in the day ('noughties through 2015 or so) there was POPFile, which did Bayesian classification of emails for spam filtering. John Graham-Cumming wrote it, and it worked reasonably well. I still think of him as the POPFile guy first, then remember he's the Cloudflare CTO. A more advanced classifier certainly do better these days.
maccard 4y ago
By that metric banks are decentralised too - my bank only speaks to another bank over a protocol but fundamentally just trusts the other side is good for it
- solveit 4y ago
  I'm not very familiar with the subject but I don't believe the protocols used in banking are very decentralized. I'd be very surprised if you told me SWIFT was permissionless, for instance.
codegeek 4y ago
You have a point but not quite the same. Email is not a speculative instrument which makes Coinbase a very risky proposition for people who are using it for transactions. I can also change Email providers (can be painful sure but possible).

Email is a decentralized protocol and the fact that you use a centralized provider such as gmail only somewhat defeats the purpose of email being a decentralized protocol instead of Google Messenger.

ralston3 4y ago

Email is _a bit_ similar, but the analogy doesn't work too well. While email might be a decentralized protocol, participation in the protocol requires quite a bit of technical effort. Whereas in crypto (e.g., Bitcoin) you can participate by just downloading a simple client and sending transactions via a nice little UI. In your example, Google actually provides a pretty huge value add by abstracting the complexities of participating in the email protocol away from the user. Crypto protocols (insofar as the assets provided by Coinbase) don't really get _that_ complex

svachalek 4y ago
It's even weirder than that, it's like if Google received your messages for you and bundled them up with everyone else's, then allowed you to read your share of the bundle but never actually delivered them to you as far as the protocol is concerned. The email protocol isn't complicated though. Back before spam was a thing, lots of people could just open a port and manually talk SMTP (you could send messages as Santa, or whatever). The only service Gmail provides that's not trivial (and I mean, something that can be done in a whiteboard interview) is the spam protection.
- fragmede 4y ago
  With the accessibility of ML these days, I'm less convinced that spam protection is that hard, if you have a little bit of patience. The spam I get is repetitive and bad, and I get enough of it that I think I could get a workable model simply by using Gmail's spam tagging to train it.
  - SAI_Peregrinus 4y ago
    Back in the day ('noughties through 2015 or so) there was POPFile, which did Bayesian classification of emails for spam filtering. John Graham-Cumming wrote it, and it worked reasonably well. I still think of him as the POPFile guy first, then remember he's the Cloudflare CTO. A more advanced classifier certainly do better these days.

maccard 4y ago

By that metric banks are decentralised too - my bank only speaks to another bank over a protocol but fundamentally just trusts the other side is good for it

solveit 4y ago
I'm not very familiar with the subject but I don't believe the protocols used in banking are very decentralized. I'd be very surprised if you told me SWIFT was permissionless, for instance.

codegeek 4y ago

You have a point but not quite the same. Email is not a speculative instrument which makes Coinbase a very risky proposition for people who are using it for transactions. I can also change Email providers (can be painful sure but possible).