Re: Thinking outside the box

> Once you have secure private delivery of messages using
> public/private keys, you don't need to create a reputation system to
> decide what to deliver. Each recipient will have a personal contacts
> list and if the sender is not in that list the message won't be
> opened. This starts the new dream system with zero receipt of spam
> and therefore zero profit for spammers thus no spam. Every message
> can be received and delivered to the users messaging agent.

So that's kind of what sites like Facebook and Twitter already do with
direct messages: you can only send them to someone who has added you as
their friend or is following you.

It's true that would stop the bulk of the spam being sent.

It's also fairly trivial to build something like that on top of the
existing SMTP infrastructure.

It doesn't prevent spam sent via compromised accounts though.

It also kills a lot of the current uses of email, which depend on more
or less unsolicited emails being sent.

Martijn.

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