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Comment by mtrovo | Hacker News Reader

Kind of off-topic, but it's such a pity that we arrived at email as the local minimum for the best communication protocol for transactional messages. Having to set up an email service just to be able to enable authentication flows on a new website is such a hindrance that I keep wondering if it would be different if sending push notifications to a cell phone was made an open protocol..

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It's because every communication protocol since has been a walled-garden with a rent-seeker attached. This is why open, federated protocols are so critically important.

I hear your pain. However I think if you really look at it email is a good thing. Its brokenness is a highly desired feature. It is the last generally accepted tech bastion that keeps us from becoming some sort of always on the job star trek borg style creatures that cannot have plausible deniability that the computer failed.

Oh i didn't get that email.

Oh spam filter.

Oh so backlogged on email.

This is the fate of most open protocols. It becomes too hard to migrate to a new spec due to the increasing difficulty of coordination and then the protocol gets stuck in time.

Spam push messages don’t need to be a thing. Ever.

China was able to pull that one off, pretty much no one uses email there.

What exactly are they using? Wechat messages?

For registering/authenticating to service, SMS mostly. Same deal in Russia in my experience, basically every website/service signup asks for your mobile number and just texts verification codes.

So smart-phone is required for everything there? No computer flows for website access? "We" definitely don't want that... but many others do as it takes control away from people.

Smartphone is required for everything there, yes. Signing up for services, authenticating yourself (e.g. when entering a train station), payment, social media, etc.

Computers used to be expensive and people had less money back then, so most of the country essentially just directly upgraded to smartphones. Many don't and never used to own a PC outside of work.

For just SMS authentication, you just need a phone. Any kind of phone.

But it also just so happens that in both of those countries, you must have your identity attached to any SIM you purchase. So, anything that makes you register with your phone number will indirectly link your real identity to that registration. It must be very convenient for their governments!

No, any kind of phone that can receive codes over SMS will work (like the ultra-cheap feature phones you can probably get at your local corner store). From a computer browser, you still enter your mobile number to login, then enter the verification code it sends you over SMS. I've also seen sites that offer phone call as an alternative to SMS, so you can presumably also login from a landline.

Thats nowhere near reality. Its used a lot in corporate world.

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