Why a website?

Why a website?

Simply because. Because I agree with Henry from henry.codes, and because I can self-host what I want (e.g. email).

Why self-host?

When you use mainstream email or cloud providers (e.g. Google, Microsoft, Apple...), most of the time, data is not encrypted from end to end. That is, whoever originates the data and whoever accesses it are not the only people who can see it. Usually, your providers can also.

If you think that a private company should not see your family photos and who you are writing emails to, self-hosting may be a good option.

And why .eu?

Because I live in Europe, and because it is cheap.

Internet domains are controlled by ICANN, which determines which top-level domains (.cat, .eu, .com, .org, etc.) can be created and which cannot, and receives hundreds of thousands of euros to approve them. There are alternatives, most of them decentralized. Some are free (.dyn, .libre, .ygg), while others require payment (.eth, .bit). However, they are not easy to use, and Internet Serivice Providers do not make things easier.

This is the reason why, if you want your website to be accessible, you must pay a private company for a second-level domain (gencat.cat, ub.edu, mtorra.eu...) under an ICANN top-level domain. In this commercial and centralized landscape, some domains can be extremely expensive. The .eu, however, is managed by the European Commission and is cheap. About 75% cheaper than .cat (managed by a small non-commercial registry), and 50% cheaper than .com (the default commercial domain). And having a domain should not be prohibitive, nor should it enrich anyone.