Anonymity 👁️🗨️ The Key to Survival - Part I
Long before I started this blog, long before I changed from Windows -> Ubuntu -> Qubes-OS, I started working on relinquishing my ties to corporate platforms and their "data collection" practices.
At first, I cut ties with whatsapp, which was very popular among those of us who rely on private messaging to send each other addresses when sending Bitcoin and alt-coins.
Then I went to Signal and Proton for email and such. Those have since been compromised. They are cowering under pressure from state actors when data is requested. I am not talking about legal requests. I am talking about ignorant law makers who made laws related to things they do not understand and they have zero interest in acquiring information that would eliminate that ignorance.
When I saw companies giving in to subpoena requests which means the messages are NOT encrypted or private. All though it can be a pain in the ass to set up, I went with a blockchain email system called BitMessage which requires and old version of python installed in order to run correctly. I got it set up and it works very well. It does not have any bells and whistles that you might find on gmail, yahoo, or proton, but it works. I want a lot of emails addresses, so I get bitmessage keys in lots of 50.
Once you set it up, it prompts you to get 10 new addresses. Emails are received on crypto addresses which are anonymous. You will see some unused slots on the image below. With those addresses, anyone who has BitMessage can send you encrypted messages. There are not many who use the system, so that is a bit useless for now. It all works but you would send using a public key - without any interface to corporate email systems.
This post is being written to explain how bitmessage can replace conventional email for the purpose of staying anonymous.
Setting up an email account.
Email addresses are free forever and you can have as many as you want. This is great for signing up for accounts on many sites that need an email and email confirmations to sign on. If I am signing up for a crypto exchange like Poloniex, for example, I create an email address called qubespol@mailchuck.com and I can confirm the account and receive email codes to sign on for as long as I want.
Creating an email address
Within BitMessage, I need only send a crypto message from the account to which that email will be associated. Send it to BM-2cVYYrhaY5Gbi3KqrX9Eae2NRNrkfrhCSA and put the new email address in the subject line of the email. Within a few minutes, you will receive a message saying "Your request has been accepted."
Next, try sending an email to the new email account from another service. You will see the email arrive and it will appear in the inbox on BitMessage.
That is it. You have a Bitcoin-like email service to receive emails.
Sending Emails
The above lets you receive emails. It works well for sign ups and things, but you cannot send emails from those accounts without paying a per-month fee. It is only payable using Bitcoin (which is perfect for me)
The cost is $1 per month to enable send capabilities for one email address. dd I usually pay $12 for the year. Because of the miner fee for sending any amount of Bitcoin, it is wise to send a larger amount rather than paying a fee to send one dollar here and one dollar there. If you pay more, you get more months of service. When it runs out, you can still receive mail and can still activate sending if needed. I will talk more about that below.
You need not pay anything if you use the email to sign up to services. You will only be reading emails-getting verification codes, to start an account or sign in if exchanges, social platforms make you verify every time. If the site sends a lot of spam, you can just delete the email address and it will never clog your inbox again! Yes, I have a separate email address for every site that requires me to enter one.
Let's say I sign up to Poloniex with my qubespol@mailchuck.com email address. I grab the verification number and I am in!
Let's say they fail to credit a deposit to that account at some time. Now I have to communicate with the support department. So I try (and it will fail) to send an email to them from qubespol@mailchuck.com on bitmessage. I will get an automated error in my email saying that I cannot send emails. That message will also contain a Bitcoin address with an amount due in order to buy 1 month of email service which will cost me $1 or 0.00000855 in Bitcoin. If I send that, I immediately have two way email communications using qubespol@mailchuck.com - in order to handle the support department at Poloniex.
In these cases, I usually send 12 times that amount, or maybe 24 times that amount so that the Bitcoin send fee is justified. Either way, this a free service with an on demand two way communications option.
It is all on the bitmessage blockchain and the encryption is as good as that of the Bitcoin private keys.
For backups: You need only find the text file that has all of your public/private key pairs for you chats/channels. With that file saved somewhere, I use pendrives, any email configuration is saved by the entity that does the forwarding. One email address per bitmessage address.
Lastly, the downside is that you must keep it running somewhere, which is what you do with gmail anyway. There is also no mobile app for it. I am always on the computer anyway, so that does not matter to me. Bitmessage does not need updates because it is already done. It just works.
Notes:
I chose to use Poloniex as an example because I have one address that I used for that site. They failed to credit a deposit 3 years ago. At the time, the amount of Bitcoin I had sent was worth $7,000 and I used my bitmessage email to communicate with them. (the example address above is not real - it is a made up example.) Just so you know. Poloniex kept that money and never credited the deposit. Today, that deposit would be worth $12,000 !
At the time, Poloniex was my most trusted crypto exchange and I used it every day. It just goes to show you how a company can change their ways and blow their reputation when the stakes get to a certain level and greed takes over.
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