So the next version of Minecraft, which you can download and test out here, will include a new item called an Ender Chest. There's some other updates which I think we should discuss, namely the Villagers being able to sell items, but for right now, I want to talk about Ender Chests. ECs will allow the everyone on the server to have a shared chest. No matter who places down an EC, anyone else who has another EC anywhere in the server can open it up and see those items anyone else placed in their EC and can take items out of that, or add their own for someone else to take. This is useful for quickly sending items without having to physically meet. However, there are a few problems this could present.

Problems:

Even if you do use this to quickly exchange items, anyone else opening them up at the same time could take the items, so it's not secure at all. Also, in single player, these chests are an easy way to transfer items out of your inventory and transport them to safety. In multiplayer, you can't use it that way since anything you put in it can be taken by anyone on the server. As is, it's reduced to just a small, public donation box where unwanted items are there for anyone to take at random.

An even more troubling thing about this is that it can be easily exploited to carry out lighting fast theft raids on houses. You have a thief who could go to the victim's house, plop down an EC next to the chest they're stealing from and quickly put stolen items into that EC. A thief friend, or anyone else on the server, can open up another EC from the other side of the map and take those items out. Even if you catch the thief and kill them, your items are long gone since they no longer have to carry them and risk dropping them if they die, or are killed, making it very hard for you to get them back.

We could make a mod that allows the Ender Chest to only transfer to another chest placed by the same player, instead of one that can be accessed by the whole server. This would make them more private for use in a way more like singleplayer where the items can be safely transported back to your house. However, thieves could still use this to transport goods across the map quickly.

The other problem with making them private is if you add something to an EC and then destroy the last EC you have on that map, it doesn't drop the items in that Ender Chest like it does a regular chest. However, if you place an EC down again and open it up, they're still there. If we just make ECs private, this could provide a unbreakable storage area for people. As long as they don't place down another EC, nobody can get into their items, which are stored in the space between spaces, some other universe, or where ever they're stored.

Possible Solutions:

First off, we could just say to hell with this and just remove Ender Chests from the game. I personally don't like that, since it is an officially added item to the game and I think it could add some cool features and gameplay with some modding. It also provides more uses for obsidian and eye of Ender. However, this would be the easiest to do and provide the least amount of headaches.

If we do mod it, I suggest a mod that would make ECs private and you can secure it like normal chests now. People could still break into them if not secured, but they would only transfer to other EC chests placed by the same player who placed that EC chest.

Another thing is we should place a proximity limit to these chests. One of these chests could only transfer to another chest by the same player in say 500 (give, or take a few) blocks in all directions. You could link chests together to transfer to longer distances. Also, limit them to where they can't transfer beyond the Neather, the regular world, or The End. They would only transfer to another chest in the same realm and within the given block proximity. This could limit how far a thief could get stolen items away from the original source. It should also give you a proximity check and let you know in the text bar if there's another EC owned by you in the area. If there isn't another one in the area to connect to, they should just act like a normal chest. This would also prevent someone from placing one down, storing items in it, and destroying it, keeping them in a realm where nobody could steal them. If you destroy an EC and there's not any left in the area for it to connect to, all the items would then fall out of it. It would prevent them from using it as an "unbreakable vault". They should also act like a normal chest if you try to link two different EC chests that weren't close enough to be linked to each other before, but if they both have full inventories that can't be combined. Either that, or just link it to whichever EC is closest.

There might be more problems that I missed, which is why I'd like to hear people's ideas, solutions, or concerns. How would you like the server to handle this? This new version of Minecraft is being tested right now and officially, things could change and they could make the server version of ECs work differently, or they could take them out. Some of us are testing these new features and deciding how it's going to affect the server. This isn't something that will change soon, but I think it's best to plan ahead.