The .mail TLD proposal sounds like nothing more than a money
making scheme for Spamhaus. The hefty registration fee, their oversight,
etc. are completely unnecessary. The technology already exists to achieve
the same result and it doesn’t require a monopoly to oversee it.
Any new proposal which grants a monopoly to something as important as email
verification should not be taken seriously.
The same effect can be achieved by requiring that all
incoming email is signed by a known, trusted key. Keyrings can be
maintained the way that whitelists are maintained now. Messages that are
not signed by known trusted keys are rejected or filtered to a “possible
junkmail” folder. A simple key exchange mechanism can be employed
to grant new senders the right to send email.
This scheme is much more flexible and can be implemented on
many levels. Email clients can maintain personal key lists, servers can
maintain trusted server lists, etc. There are several established
competing CA that can be used between unknown parties and of course, any ISP,
business, etc. can establish it’s own CA for use by it’s
members. This type of scheme gives ISPs, businesses, and users the
flexibility and power required for a successful system. Devoting the power
to one group is both unnecessary and ill-advised.