SMTP’s Accidental Permanence: How a Trusted-Network Protocol Became Global Infrastructure

The usual framing is that SMTP is “old but it works,” as if longevity were proof of good design. It’s closer to the opposite: SMTP has survived not because its core assumptions turned out to be right, but because email became load-bearing global infrastructure before anyone could replace the protocol underneath it, and every problem … Continue reading SMTP’s Accidental Permanence: How a…