What is Blockchain Email?
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Jul 8, 2019
Key Takeaways
Purpose: This article explains how blockchain — the decentralized ledger technology behind cryptocurrency — could reshape how email is stored, verified, and secured.
Core idea: By linking each message as a “block” in an immutable chain, blockchain email could create tamper-proof communication records and verify sender authenticity.
Benefits:
Enhanced security: Decentralized verification makes large-scale hacking or phishing nearly impossible.
Immutable proof of consent: A permanent, verifiable trail simplifies compliance with privacy and marketing laws.
Authentication by design: Every message is validated by the network, curbing spam and impersonation.
User privacy: Decentralization prevents any single provider from scanning, selling, or locking access to user data.
Resilience: Distributed storage means no lost or corrupted emails and direct peer-to-peer delivery.
Smarter marketing: Authenticated user data could enable highly accurate, privacy-safe targeting.
Challenges: Massive storage requirements, scalability limits, uncertain privacy guarantees from closed-source projects, “walled garden” interoperability issues, and attachment size limits.
Outlook: While mainstream adoption remains distant, hybrid blockchain-based verification (like Salesforce’s patent for sender validation) may supplement — not replace — existing email infrastructure.
Q&A Highlights
What is blockchain email in simple terms?
It’s a system that stores every email transaction on a shared, tamper-proof ledger, ensuring authenticity, transparency, and security.
Why would anyone need blockchain for email?
To eliminate spoofing, phishing, and third-party data control while creating verifiable communication trails for both senders and recipients.
How does it differ from today’s email security tools (SPF, DKIM, DMARC)?
Those tools verify senders at delivery time, while blockchain could verify every message permanently across a decentralized network.
What makes blockchain email hard to scale?
The enormous global email volume — over 100 trillion messages yearly — would demand prohibitive storage and bandwidth if every email were recorded on-chain.
Will blockchain replace conventional email?
Unlikely in the short term. It’s more probable that blockchain will complement existing systems by enhancing verification and consent tracking rather than rebuilding email from scratch.
Like the cloud several years ago, cryptocurrency is the new tech buzzword that’s generated a lot of chatter while leaving many wondering if it’s much ado about nothing. The term “blockchain” often goes hand-in-hand with the cryptocurrency talk, but it has applications beyond that, including email.
Blockchain is a decentralized method for collecting and storing communication records. Each addition to the thread, or block, links to the others in the same conversation. When the process applies to email, it’s a way to create a permanent form of communication resistant to altering and forgery.
A Brief History of Blockchain
Blockchain made its first appearance in the global economic recession of 2009 as a partner to Bitcoin. An unidentified Japanese entrepreneur saw potential disadvantages in the world’s existing currency system and created Bitcoin as a response. At the same time, he began designing a plan to secure and protect the Bitcoin ledgers and transactions for accurate records, and blockchain was his solution.
Typical Industries Currently Using Blockchain Technology
Blockchain methods appear in several of our most prominent business sectors, including:
Retail: Blockchain has many applications, from authenticity verification to preventing fraudulent purchases and sales.
Healthcare: With its enhanced security features and interoperability, blockchain improves information privacy and functionality.
Financial Services: Transaction protection and quick settlements provide cost reductions and operational efficiencies.
The Pros and Cons of Blockchain Email
It might seem surprising, but blockchain email is a thing, and there are a few projects in development that want to use it to disrupt traditional email systems. Because a blockchain is an open, distributed ledger that’s replicated across many computers and has no centralized point of access, it’s seen as immune to attacks by bad actors. Those features make it attractive for email, which has many weaknesses that can be exploited.
Figuring out a way to make email more secure is key because it’s not going away any time soon. According to OptinMonster, people send a staggering 102.6 trillion emails annually, and in the U.S., it’s used by more than 90% of everyone over the age of 15 (yes, even those who have never known a world without social media).
In addition, 60% of consumers join email lists to get promotional offers, compared to 20% of consumers who follow brands on social media for the same reason. And with a potential return on investment of up to 4400%, email marketing remains a strong growth driver for many businesses.
Blockchain email has benefits that make it attractive to email marketers, but it has drawbacks too, as we’ll explain.
The Benefits of Blockchain Email
The Downsides of Blockchain Email
The Prospects for Blockchain Email
Blockchain email currently lags far behind cryptocurrency when it comes to adoption and interest in the long-term prospects of the technology. It also seems to be gaining less traction than messaging, in-app payments, contract creation, and other use cases.
However, the possibility of using it to combat all kinds of fraud is very attractive to businesses, so it’s likely that blockchain-based like the one Salesforce is developing could win out in the long run. Even if blockchain can’t provide an end-to-end, all-encompassing email solution, it can likely supplement the current environment.
