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Comment by foogazi | Hacker News Reader

This is great example of the USPS as the federal government store front. They already handle passport appointments.

I’d like to see options for the unhoused and unbanked:

Homeless people get ID verified, get virtual mail access: all mail scanned and available online, physical mail at closest zip

Low income unbanked get access to free banking options

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The USPS piloted a postal-banking program last year, in four post offices: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/agency-oversight/2022/04/usps...

It would be awesome if that could be expanded!

Mail scanning is a service already provided by private companies. For example, a random search returned this result for a store in Los Altos (near Mountain View): https://www.villagemailcenter.com/Products-Services/Digital-...

It would be awesome if a community-services provider could set up something similar, but it's worth noting the USPS does have two services which might work:

• https://faq.usps.com/s/article/Is-there-mail-service-for-the...

• https://faq.usps.com/s/article/What-is-General-Delivery

The stupid thing is that (I understand) the USPS is prohibited by law from offering such services. Go figure.

Source?

https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-20-354#:~:text=In%20general....

> unless approved by the Postal Regulatory Commission

All laws can be changed

https://www.theonion.com/congress-forgets-how-to-pass-a-law-...

That's truly ironic – in Europe, the giro/wire transfer system has its roots in the postal service in many countries!

In the US, a similar thing happened for American Express and Western Union, which also started out as postal and telegraph service providers before they became financial service providers.

I would like USPS issue an unalienable e-mail addresses. Ideally, I want to be able to use an email provider of my choosing, but MX records does not allow configuration of email server per address. So realistically, email relay.

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