According to wikipedia, a killer app is defined as:
"In marketing terminology, a killer application (commonly shortened to killer app) is any computer program or software that is so necessary or desirable that it proves the core value of some larger technology, such as computer hardware, a video game console, software, a programming language, a software platform, or an operating system.[1] In other words, consumers would buy the (usually expensive) hardware just to run that application. A killer app can substantially increase sales of the platform on which it runs."
The first killer app was VisiCalc spreadsheet for the Apple II that helped people calculate numerical values so that the companies could keep good accounting, and like that, many others have helped skyrocket technologies to the mainstream, since is not about how brilliant a technology is after all, but more about how clear and compeling the application of that tech is done through a pretty and useful interface.
The first crypto killer dapp is money, pioneered by bitcoin. Other dapps are being developed as you read this.
Today I want to introduce you to one of those hipothetical killer dapp, if done right. Crypto email.
However, for it to be a true killer dapp and not just another blockchain with almost zero users, a few things should work in my opinion.
Encrypted By Default
It's on the name, crypto email should have serious encryption, perhaps even to the point of doing a fork from the privacy-oriented code of the monero community. If the encryption is weak or not impressive enough it would not work IMO.
This basic layer of privacy would prove extremelly useful for investigative journalists and whistleblowers, since it would be censorship resistant.
Spam Resistant
Spam is a pain and to combat it to an acceptable degree, gigantic centralized verification and filter systems had been built, but the problem has not even been resolved and we still experience the issue even till this day.
Well, a great crypto email alternative should be (at least) way better at handling spam that its centralized predecesors, here just a couple of ideas on how to deal with that.
Pay per email sent: Well, this one should be no surprise, since in crypto transactions do cost money, however this alone might not deter a spamer.
Dynamic email pricing: an additional idea would be to make each email more costly depending on much of a stranger the person sending the email is, and more affordable if the sender is your friend or family member, defining friendships based on what emails you open and reply to, as well as a DIY list with contacts you designated as important, that way if someone from russia wants to contact you out of the blue he would have to pay a higher amount, something doable like the equivalent of 1 USD, so as to not scare away legitimate first contacts, but only mass scale spammers.
Dynamic email pricing 2.0: You might also want to decide the cost of emails from certain contact after you read the email, that way you can put a dynamic price of 100 USD per contact if you get an email from the prince of Nigeria, while you can adjust the price to 0.001 USD to granma.
Ability to block adresses: Again, to discourage spammers, with the option of sending message back saying "you have been blocked from sending emails to this adress" or leave the message out if you want to be more discreet.
Be On Its Own Chain
A project like this could not work as a token IMO, you would need to have it on its own secure chain, specially since the tech might need to be specially targeted at just resolving all the quirks bout email.
FAST
A crypto email system should be crazy fast, something like nano or stellar lumens at the very least, if not, is a project that is dead on arrival.
Monetization
Some spammers are annoying, others are criminal, but besides them there are also people running bussines with massive email lists that need to deliver, so a system in which people are willing to subscribe to corporate newsletters inside the dapp should exist, perhaps with the user getting rewarded for accepting such commercial offerings, just like with the brave browser, but with email.
One Click PDF Download
People should be able to download their own emails, either individually or in bulk in a human readable format and not in some json joke file, if you are the first to do so you can assure loyal fans from the get go.
Little Guy's Friendly Mining
People should be able to mine your crypto-email coin and secure the network within their PC, Mac or even their cellphones without a gigantic crypto mining company taking over the network.
Multi Emails
Admit it, you can barely remember all your email adresses, which essentially means that many of us (perhaps even the majority) use different email adresses as just separate inboxes, all separated and isolated for brand reasons, which is so inefficient since each email has its own login.
If instead you could generate a human readabel adress without having to open a whole new email account, that would be great.
LBRY did it for its channel system, and because of that I can explore more topics on LBRY than on youtube or HIVE.
One Click Migration Dapp
Old habits die hard, that's why a Dapp that onboards customers in the case of email is essential, for instance some dapp that includes the following steps:
Download Dapp
Input the email adress you currently use + your password, with everything encrypted and decentralized
Dapp makes a copy of all your emails (is that even technically possible? I am just dreaming out loud here) and sets up an order to your old email, from now on any new email will be forwarded to your new crypto email adress.
Finally you get some free crypto.
LBRY did something similar with youtube channel migrations and youtube sync, and that's why many people now are on LBRY, they just need to upload to youtube and later some script does a copy of that video to their LBRY channel. However perhaps this is achievable in the case of youtube since the data is public.
Aggresive Viral Affiliate Marketing
Each email you send can include a link to download the dapp and ditch their legacy email, and if they join with your email you get a crypto commision, similar to what LBRy does.
It Has To Work With Legacy Email
Someone should be able to email your crypto email adress without them needing to do anything different.
Since all email incurs a trasactions, perhaps some of the transactions fees could be directed at incoming emails from legacy systems, or a pre-mine stash that can only be used for incoming emails, or a combination of both.
Is any of this even technically possible? I am just dreaming out loud here, any thoughts? Leave them in the comments!
Follow me on LBRY
My favorite, I can upload PDF's, audio and video, and is decentralized, follow me there, and you also will get some free crypto.
Everybody raise their hands who wants to pay for each and every email they send. Didn't think so.