I think we should pause before having a serious discussion about an interface replacing a protocol. This is like Google's pitch being "Our search will dominate

I think we should pause before having a serious discussion about an interface replacing a protocol. This is like Google's pitch being "Our search will dominate because we use a single text field, and we have a 'surprise me' button." If you want to "replace email" you have to replace its infrastructural value to the internet too, not just the superficial day-to-day convenience of messaging. As long as every website requires email to register, messaging is a secondary consideration. I think that 750k could have been used for a failure-less-obvious. EDIT: for tone.