In ye days of yore, most people got their email accounts from their local Internet Service Provider. A lot of those small businesses are gone, and the email addresses with them.

Then larger companies came like AOL and Comcast providing email addresses, and you don't see those addresses too much anymore.

The "free" email providers more commonly used today are problematic for so many shady practices, but if you don't like their practices, it's a pain to move away, it's like moving to a new city.

That's why the public/private key model is so brilliant in nostr. You're not tied to a company, app, or provider. You can move from client to client at will. No account creation needed. It's brilliant.

Here's an “free” email service provider that started out cool, but then...