From: "Bert-Jaap Koops" <E.J.Koops@kub.nl>
Date: Wed, 16 Oct 1996 08:42:40 -0700 (PDT)
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Comment on binding cryptography (2)
Message-ID: <7E197D845BB@frw3.kub.nl>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Adam Back wrote:
>Hey Bert-Jaap, I had you down as one of the good guys, what caused you
>to fold :-)

It's nice to hear I was listed as a good guy. Maybe I can regain some 
credit if I explain why I co-published the binding cryptography 
proposal ;-).

I haven't yet made up my mind how the crypto problems for law 
enforcement are to be addressed. It's my Ph.D. subject, and all I can 
say at present is that the issue is complex.

That is why I want there to be as much information on the issue as 
possible. I don't say I agree with key-escrow, GAK or binding crypto, 
nor with demanding a suspect to decrypt, but I want to know all there 
is to know before I make up my mind. 

Having a new proposal helps putting things into perspective. At least 
the binding crypto proposal shows (as other proposals have) that 
there's no need to escrow your private keys, and that's a point.
Also, as I said in my first comments, binding crypto isn't meant to 
solve the crypto problem, it is "merely" meant to provide a 
trustworthy crypto system with some safeguard. 

Finally, to my mathematician's sense of aesthetics, binding crypto 
is an elegant proposal. It merits publication in its own right. Not 
because I think it should be established, but because I think it 
should be known.

Bert-Jaap

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Bert-Jaap Koops                         tel     +31 13 466 8101
Center for Law, Administration and      facs    +31 13 466 8149
Informatization, Tilburg University     e-mail  E.J.Koops@kub.nl
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