Email 2.0 - Starting Over From Scratch

Recently a new top-level domain was proposed - .MAIL. The idea is that only certified spam-free organizations would be allowed to use the domains. Of course, the suggestion has been made by the same organization (Spamhaus) that would participate in regulating the domain.

This isn't a bad idea, but I think I can offer a better one. What if dot-Mail domains were subject to a new version of the SMTP protocol? The new protocol would inherently have spam control built-in. The basic concept would be requiring the sender to "pay" for their email with computational time. Messages sent from these domains could bypass traditional antispam filter applications.

Any mail sent from within the new TLD could be safely assumed spam-free. A user trying to send email to a .MAIL domain address from a .COM address might be subject to a challenge-response request. The types of requests have proved problematic in the past, but if adapted domain-wide might be more accepted by users. A standardized format would be adopted so that machine-delivered messages could answer the challenge by using a certain amount of computing time.

This approach is somewhat radical in that non-.MAIL addresses would be burdened with additional requirements when sending email. However, most users serious about email would eventually obtain .MAIL accounts.

The SpamButcher software can be used as an Outlook junk mail filter or with many other mail clients such as Eudora or Outlook Express.

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