So, does that mean that Eppie explicitly cannot (at this time) send email _out_ to the “conventional” email world?

If I would need to use Eppie as a client to a third party email service to send email out to the general world, it makes adoption a very hard sell indeed.

We never intended to have this functionality. If a user wants to put their message to some server, they have normal email. Everyone has it, and everyone will keep using it in the near future. Let’s say we added a convenience to use one client app for both conventional and decentralized emails.

You will have to reconsider your stance on interoperability with existing email infrastructure. This is a network effect that you are not equipped to ignore.

Google defederated their XMPP infrastructure. Do you think they wouldn't do the same with GMail, if they could afford to?

Full interoperability at this point is impossible without compromising our core feature. But there are millions of users already using this kind of technology, and we believe the decentralized ecosystem and the demand will be growing. And we try our best to make the transition easy.

Millions of users using "this kind of" technology does not validate the premise of defederating from regular email. Can you use this to sign up for Netflix? Facebook? Reddit? Discord? Every time you said "no", you've lost 99% of the previously remaining potential audience.

This is an important use case. The short answer is yes you can.

So what do I set my MX record to?

Do I have to run my own node - on a server in my basement, or on a VPS?

Do I have to trust your infrastructure?

Do I have to go through another, existing provider?

I'm trying to get a simple answer to these questions since my original post.

> So what do I set my MX record to?

To create a gateway on your domain, you should run your own Eppie node and set MX record to point to that node. Otherwise, there’s no MX record. It’s a p2p trustless network

> Do I have to run my own node - on a server in my basement, or on a VPS?

Yes, as soon as Eppie is launched.

> Do I have to trust your infrastructure?

Eppie is a trustless network. All nodes are equal. So, no, you don’t have to trust it. Take a look at our GitHub: https://github.com/Eppie-io

> Do I have to go through another, existing provider?

No you don’t.

> I'm trying to get a simple answer to these questions since my original post.

We appreciate your willingness to get to the bottom of it.