Technology pioneer McAfee: Blockchain makes email systems great again

As the world enters the digital age, more and more content information is put on the Internet. This has led to many data breaches around the world, and due to the problems of intermediaries, the email system has always been the weakest and most vulnerable link.

Since last month's Yahoo Mail vulnerability, which exposed up to 1 billion user data, many people have flocked to end-to-end encrypted messaging systems such as WhatsApp, Telegram and iMessage, but can't we simply redesign email services to eliminate these weak links? Several companies have decided to use blockchain as an alternative to traditional email systems. This blockchain-based system allows emails to be sent through a decentralized network, such as CryptaMail and technology security pioneer John McAfee's SwiftMail.

Using blockchain to seal data has numerous benefits

CryptaMail believes that since blockchain is decentralized and all data is dispersed, there is no specific location for this data. All data is P2P, so no data is placed in a certain database. This reduces the risk of third-party organizations accessing the content of the information, thereby ensuring that only the sender and the receiver have the information.

This means that the information itself has been encrypted in a token and sent on the blockchain in the form of a transaction. Because the SwiftMail blockchain is private, McAfee is so confident in the SwiftMail platform and the SwiftCoin blockchain that it is willing to offer $100,000 worth of SwiftCoin to hackers who can break into SwiftMail.

Daniel Bruno, one of the members of the SwiftMail team, told Cointelegraph that blockchain email can speed up the delivery of emails as long as they are kept in sync with the blockchain.

Why choose to use blockchain?

CryptaMail itself uses the NXT (Futurecoin) protocol as it has more functionality than the Bitcoin blockchain for sending messages. However, SwiftMail uses its own separate blockchain to implement what they call 'Solidus Rewards' for earning more SwiftCoins through an interest-based system as this blockchain, unlike NXT, does not require mining.

Currently, the problem with blockchain email systems is that they are not cross-platform compatible like traditional email systems. For example, Outlook mailbox users can send emails to Gmail mailbox users, but for blockchain, cross-blockchain capabilities are not yet available.

Another point is that, unlike traditional email systems, blockchain-based emails are not free. All blockchain emails sent between users are placed in a microtransaction. The relevant companies are ensuring that the number of transactions sent per coin is maximized.

CryptaMail requires one NXT per message, which is worth $0.006147. SwiftMail requires 0.001 SwiftCoin per message, which is about $0.001. Based on these pricing information, we may have to pay for privacy in the future.

Bringing blockchain email to mobile phones

Currently, only SwiftMail is planning to expand to iOS 10 and has released an Android app, but it does not currently have the Solidus rewards feature. However, SwiftMail and CryptaMail are both pioneers in this field, and we expect to see more blockchain email services in 2017.

Will blockchain messaging be the future? As technology becomes more and more integrated into our lives, people’s fear of data leaks is growing. From George Orwell’s 1984, we are now constantly worried that we are being monitored. Perhaps encrypted blockchain messaging can solve this problem in the near future.