Nostr Web Client

I'm surprised by the number of bitcoiners that don't host their own email. Being a sovereign individual is such a big ideal among bitcoiners and yet so many choose to have their email services hosted by a third-party provider.

Email still today plays a huge role in our online identities and communication. Almost every service we sign up for requests an email address either for some type of verification purpose or communications. Having a third party host your email allows that provider to be privy to all your email information. What services you use, what you buy, where you shop, your acquaintances, and more is all information that can be gleaned from your email.

Hosting your email should be as important to bitcoiners as hosting your own bitcoin node.

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Discussion

Bones 2y ago

If I get a start9 or some node I think I will start.

Michael 2y ago

Start9 offers this pre-packaged?

Bones 2y ago

I don't know but if it is a server I assume you could host email.

BladeRunner 2y ago

Definitely but SMTP/MTA ports like 25 tend to be blocked unless using some better vps services. Then comes the problem of ending up on blacklists.

Tyler Burns 2y ago

I've been hosting my own email for 20 years now with several ISPs over that time and have never had issues with port 25 being blocked. Maybe it is more common outside the USA?

Most recipients these days are also validating more using SPF/DKIM than IP blocklists. If I ever come across a recipient that is blocking my IP I have a relay that I can use for that specific domain.

All else fails, hosting your own email services with a cloud hosting provider or colocation service is still better and provides more privacy/security than using one of the big public email providers.

Michael 2y ago

Have any guides to look into? I had read somewhere that the non-big providers are blocked. Something along those lines.

Tyler Burns 2y ago

I personally just use postfix for SMTP, dovecot for mailbox, and spamassassin/sieve for spam filtering. A lot of guides and documentation out there for these common services.

I then just choose a web front end for accessing my email. For myself, I actually close off all external/public access for email retrieval. So the only open port to my email is port 25 for sending email to me. Accessing the web front end can only be done on my local LAN or over a Tor onion service with a client key. That way I can ensure access to my emails is locked down.