For individuals, Matrix's identity scheme creates lock-in.
How to fix?
I love Matrix. I think it’s the way forward for libre/open (as in freedom) personal communications, with a real chance to free users from the lock-in of popular silo messaging systems like Whatsit, Facepalm and Twiddle. I run all my own messaging (except email) through Matrix, with bridges to the silos that my friends still use as well as SMS and IRC.
At present, unfortunately, there is a big obstacle to me recommending any friend or family member to sign up to Matrix: identity and server lock-in.
An Open system with lock-in? Ugh. What went wrong?
To use a silo, you register an account and either you are identified by your telephone number or you choose a username. (You can then set some account options, usually including a “display name” which you can change from time to time.) Now, what if at some point you dislike that silo’s rules or advertising or charging? You’re stuck. They deliberately designed the system so that nobody has any options other than continue or quit.
To use Matrix, you register an account on a server. You first need to choose a server, which is identified by its Internet domain name such as matrix.org, or mozilla.org, or my-own-server.my-name.me if you run your own server. You can find out which servers are available for public use. Some are free of charge and others require payment, similar to email services. Having chosen a server, you pick a username and are then identified globally as @username:servername . (You can also choose a display name.)
Matrix right now is great for an organization: running their own server on their own domain, they control their own rules and namespace for users, rooms and groups.
If you are a normal person, your default option is to register a username on ‘matrix.org‘. (In principle there will be other public servers but there are hardly any so far.) Then, that username is tied to that server forever, or at least until Matrix developers invent a way out.
This lock-in is different from a silo. At least with Matrix you can create a new account on another server, to get away if you don’t like the old one. What you can’t do (yet) is migrate your old account to the new one. Not in any way. See “Account Migration” below.
Bring Your Own Domain Name
One way to mitigate the account migration problem is to register an account under a server domain name that you control.
The point is, then, the user controls their own domain name registration, which is directly registered with a domain registrar, outside the control of and Matrix or other service provider. The user can keep their own domain and have it served by a new server in the future if the current server becomes unsuitable or unavailable.
How feasible is this, today?
- A geek with time and skills can register a domain name and run their own server.
- A person with some time and effort and money can register a domain name and pay for a hosted matrix server. The cost and effort is broadly similar to setting up a new phone or internet or TV service. It does require some investment of thought and learning what it’s all about.
- A normal Whatsit user is used to “free and easy”, and there is currently no such option for them.
Hosted servers come with significant limitations on customizing your server. For example, on modular.im (currently the main hosting option), AFAIK you cannot run the Whatsit bridge.
What can we do to improve things for the normal user?
- make it cheap (not necessarily free)
- Build a server that can serve lots of different people’s personal-domain user accounts. (This may be called a “multi-tenant” server design.) @mfilipe:matrix.org mentioned this today on #matrix-dev:matrix.org.
- Spread the word that it’s sensible to pay for a service so that you are not the product being sold, unlike the free silos.
- make it easy
- Build services in which a new user can set up a domain name and a matrix server or account at that domain, and pay for both with one payment. (Major providers of some services like email offer this.)
- For people migrating from a specific silo, offer ready-to-use setups (bridging) and messaging (intro, and suggestions for how to tell the silo friends about it) that are customised for that case.
- Make it easier for geeks to run matrix servers for their friends and family.
Who should be doing this? Not necessarily the Matrix Foundation or New Vector (who make Riot and Modular.im among other Matrix things). They have limited resources and their own priorities. It’s an open-source system so anyone wanting these things should get involved and start making them.
Good places to discuss and get involved in the self-hosting side include #matrix-docker-ansible-deploy:devture.com and #matrix-self-host-onboarding:chat.weho.st .
Account Migration
It would be useful to be able to migrate an old account to a new one in ways like:
- forward messages to the new address
- inform all contacts of the new address
- set up an auto-reply
- copy account settings
- copy message history
- copy a list of contacts
I was thinking about what is possible in email, and what regrettably isn’t available. Migrating an email account is not at all simple, but most of the mini-features above are possible to some extent. One thing regrettably missing in the email system is a way to automatically inform senders to an old account that they should update your address and re-send to a new account. (Like an HTTP “redirect”.)
It would be useful to develop those kinds of mini-features for making the transition to a new matrix account smoother. That might be a feasible short-term mitigation.
However, there is a better long term solution: decoupling accounts from identity.
Decoupling Identity
[TODO: Write about decoupling identity.]