--On Tuesday, January 4, 2022 16:30 -0500 Phillip Hallam-Baker
<phill@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> OK so after some offline discussion, I think I now have a
> technical reason for not trying to build on SMTP.
>
> TL;DR; When you design the wheel from scratch you can start
> off with a round one. [Jay Carlson just posted that in
> response to another discussion]
That original, somewhat-square, wheel was refined over many
millennia so that it is round and rolls smoothly, is very widely
deployed, and various versions of it are widely available and
interoperable from many sources. There are many studies and
examples that new, whiz-band technologies to replace it don't go
anywhere. Instead, when major new developments/improvements
come along (think, e.g., pneumatic tires), they get retrofitted
onto more or less the same old wheel rather than replacing it.
If SMTP is irrelevant to your plans except insofar as you think
your ideas will cause it to be less {useful | accepted |
relevant} then let's stop talking about it and instead,
concentrate on the problems you are trying to solve and how you
determine success... as Christopher and others (including
myself) keep suggesting. I would personally predict that, like
that historical wheel, the wide deployment and use of SMTP would
make it much harder to displace than you seem to be assuming --
a prediction that seems to be reinforced by the large number of
"better than SMTP" that have fallen by the wayside. But, if you
disagree or don't care, go for it and let's move on.
Very similar comments apply to trying to break or supercede an
ICANN-controlled DNS and the consequences of the name-renting
behavior that it has enabled and encouraged. If you see that
as a goal, then we need to understand and perspective and why it
is relevant to your success with the Mesh. If it would be just
a desirable side-effect when you succeed, then let's move on.
best,
john
