Welcome curious minds to another deep dive. We all use email, right? It's kind of
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the digital backbone for everything we do online
But let's be honest. Sometimes it feels a bit
Well old clunky maybe and privacy not always great and it's definitely not instant
like the chat apps
We're all used to now, but what if what if email could be all those things fast
secure instant, but still keep its global reach
That's the really interesting idea behind a project called chat mail and that's
what we're digging into today
Now before we properly jump in a quick word from our valued supporter
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Okay. So our mission today is to really unpack chat mail
We want to explore what it is how it works under the hood because the tech is
fascinating and you know
Why it actually matters for how you communicate online? We've got their github
repository their project website to guide us
So yeah, get ready to maybe rethink email a bit. Alright, let's get into it. Chat
mail isn't like just another messaging app popping up
It's more of a whole new approach aiming to fundamentally change how we even use
email at its heart
It seems to be about making email. Well exciting again secure instant tackling
those big frustrations
We all have exactly and what's really fascinating. I think is that it's a community
project. It's free and open source software F OSS
Their main goal is providing these infrastructure templates and libraries for and
this is their phrase interoperable and secure instant email messaging
So interoperable is key designed to work across different systems
no more walled gardens ideally and it's built on these two huge principles
automatic end-to-end encryption and
metadata minimization
Okay
Automatic end-to-end encryption that jumps out immediately because usually getting
proper email encryption involves like PGP keys and complicated setups
Doesn't it you saying chat mail just does it it just does it for you the user?
It means your messages are private from your device to the recipients device
automatically
No fiddling required is designed in from the start and the metadata minimization is
just as important
Really?
It means cutting down massively on the data about your communication who you talk
to when how often that stuff can be really revealing
Plus they offer optional ephemeral peer-to-peer messaging too, which brings in real-time
data
Multi-device setups it pushes the privacy and the speed even further. It gives you
control, right?
So it's keeping the good bits of email that global decentralized network, but
injecting it with modern chat features
security speed and
Being open source is a big plus too. That really is a different way of thinking
about email compared to you know
Just your standard inbox. Okay, so that's the big picture. But how how do they
actually achieve this?
It sounds almost too good to be true for standard email protocol. Well, yeah, the
how is where the clever engineering really shines
It's built on two main pillars. You've got the chat mail core library, and then you
have the chat mail relays
Hmm. The core is basically the engine running on your end on your device. That's
what handles making things instant secure locally
Okay, let's dig into the core first them this chat mail core library
What's it doing on my phone or computer to make all this happen? So chat mail core
is this robust cross-platform library?
It's written mainly in rust. Ah
Rust known for performance and safety exactly a smart choice when you're dealing
with secure communications
This library is what apps or bots integrate to actually participate securely in
this
Enhanced email network because of all those instant secure features directly and it
handles a lot of complex stuff quietly in the background
So you don't have to worry about it like secure TLS set up for encrypting the
connection to the server
That's table stakes, but it includes advanced things like DNS caching and a proxy
support to for speed and privacy
It manages robust SMTP and IMAP handling the basic email protocols, but makes them
more reliable
It ensures safe handling of MIE which structures emails and open PGP for encryption
standards
making sure it's all parsed and built correctly and securely and
Crucially, it implements security audited end-to-end encryption
It uses protocols like RPGP auto crypt secure join making sure messages are private
without you needing to configure anything
Wow, and then there's the really innovative part ephemeral peer-to-peer networking
using something called IRO
This allows for super fast multi-device sync and real-time data like for these
little web apps called WebEx DC
It means instant communication without always needing a central server
It even includes a tested PDP group chat protocol that works without needing server
state which is a huge privacy win for groups
Okay. Wow, that is a ton of heavy lifting happening right there on the device
It's like putting the intelligence at the edge, isn't it?
So that covers my end, but what about the messages journey after it leaves my
device?
That's where the cat mail relays come in. You said these sound different from
regular mail servers. Oh, they are fundamentally different
Yeah, this is where chat mail really rethink the infrastructure
The chat mail relay software helps deploy a minimal mail transfer agent an MTA
Oh, but and this is the critical difference
These relays only transmit messages that are already end-to-end encrypted and
metadata minimized
They provide ephemeral transport only they don't store your messages long-term ephemeral
transport
So they're like a super secure courier that just passes the package along instantly
and doesn't keep a copy or even know what's inside
That's what drastically different from my standard email server that keeps
everything forever. What does that mean practically huge benefits?
Especially for cost and efficiency for you or anyone running one. It means these
relays are incredibly cheap to operate
They estimate something like half a cent per user per year for a hundred thousand
users
Yeah, and almost zero admin cost after setup half a cent. Seriously. Seriously.
Think about that small communities journalists
Activists they could potentially run their own secure infrastructure for next to
nothing
That's a massive shift away from relying on big centralized providers
It's about digital sovereignty and because they only handle encrypted traffic. They
don't understand
They completely ditch the need for all that complex IP reputation stuff and spam
filtering machinery
Which simplifies operations massively. Yeah
It also means apps using chat mail can send messages instantly without hitting the
usual email server rate limits that choke
Traditional systems trying to do real-time stuff got it. So the picture I'm getting
is
It's like they built this high-tech super secure express lane on top of the
existing global email highway
It's designed just for this instant private traffic the old lanes still there, but
this one's optimized
But how does that express lane interact with the regular highway?
Surely there must be some friction or challenges integrating this right? It can't
be perfectly smooth talking to older systems
That's a really good point interoperability is always a challenge while chat mail
uses email standards
The fact that messages are automatically end-to-end encrypted means a classic non
chat about client won't understand them
It'll just see encrypted gibberish and it won't get the real-time P2P benefits
either
So the main hurdle isn't so much technical resistance from the email system itself
But rather getting everyone involved in a conversation on to a chat mail compatible
client to unlock the full potential
It's about network effects really but by sticking to open standards and providing
these easy-to-use libraries
They're trying to make bridging that gap as simple as possible for developers.
Right the adoption challenge makes sense
Okay, so we've covered the tech which is genuinely impressive
What does this translate to for you the listener or maybe for developers looking to
build something new?
Like what can you actually do with chat mail right now? Yeah, the practical side
Well, the chat mail core library offers what's called a high-level JSON RPC API
Basically, that's a clean interface for app developers. It lets them easily add all
the chat mail features contact management setting up chats
Sending and receiving messages instantly via email or PDP without needing to be
rust experts
It abstracts away a lot of that low-level complexity and to make it even easier
They provide language bindings like adapters or bridges for loads of popular
languages
We're talking C JavaScript Python go free Pascal Java Swift. Wow, that's
comprehensive
Yeah, these developers can plug this core power into all sorts of apps web desktop
mobile
It really opens up the possibilities and it's not just theoretical right? You
mentioned projects are already using this
Can you give us a sense of what kind of friend tens are out there? Maybe an
interesting example?
Absolutely, the project website actually has a gallery. There are already native
clients for Android iOS and desktop
Aiming for that seamless experience plus integrations with existing chat platforms
like pigeon and telepathy, which is cool
Even for news platforms like a boat to touch as for an innovative example
Think about the bots being built. You could have say a secure alert system for a
community group
Instant notifications but end-to-end encrypted
So only the right people see sensitive info or maybe a bot facilitating secure
anonymous reporting for whistleblowers
Leveraging emails resilience, but with chat mails privacy. These things are
actually being developed
It shows the versatility you can even play with it directly using a command line
tool
They provide Delta chat rep all to set up accounts and send messages shows how
solid the foundation is
So fundamentally this seems to be about as you said raising the floor for everyone
who relies on email
Even if they don't realize it making that base level of communication much more
secure private and instant using tools that are accessible
It feels like a real effort to provide alternatives to the big centralized
messaging silers
We're all kind of locked into it's an ongoing thing. Absolutely ongoing
It's not just about building their own stuff
The team actively contributes back to the open source ecosystem
They find bugs in the hundreds of rust libraries they depend on and they submit
fixes upstream. Ah, that's good citizenship
It really is it strengthens the whole foundation for everyone. It reflect that core
belief in open robust
Transparent technology build for everyone's benefit. So wrapping things up. What
does this mean for you?
Chat mail isn't just trying to add some bells and whistles to email
It's fundamentally reimagining it turning it into a private instant messaging
backbone for potentially well everyone
It keeps the global reach of email, but turbo charges it with modern encryption and
efficiency
It's a really powerful example
I think of how open source innovation can take something foundational and make it
relevant
Private and user controlled for today's world
Escaping those proprietary walled gardens and that really leads to a final thought
for you to maybe ponder if
Digital communication could be truly instant truly secure and fully decentralized
built on open universal standards like email
What new possibilities would that unlock? How would that change how we connect
share information collaborate, you know
Free from the limits and the potential oversight of single giant platforms
What could that mean for society for communities or just for your own personal
conversations?
That's a fantastic question to leave us with a lot to think about there and that
wraps up our deep dive into chat mail
Thank you so much for joining us on this exploration and a final big
Thank you to our sponsor safe server for helping make this duck dive possible
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We look forward to diving deep with you again very soon
We look forward to diving deep with you again very soon