From: "James A. Donald" <jamesd@echeque.com>
Date: Wed, 13 Dec 1995 16:48:45 +0800
To: nsb+limbo@nsb.fv.com>
Subject: Re: Usability of Cryptography (was Re: More FUD from First Virtual)
Message-ID: <199512130722.XAA11947@blob.best.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 01:06 PM 12/11/95 -0700, Bryce wrote:
> To get to the point, I want to know if this "fundamental 
> tradeoff" that you refer to is in fact *fundamental*.  That is
> to say: is the product of the "security factor" and the
> "usability factor" a constant?  Or are there methods which can
> be practically implemented to make strong cryptography easier
> for Joe Average to use without exposing Joe to unnecessary
> risks?

Web of trust is a mess because it attempts to link keys to 
physical people, which in general cannot be done.

If we stick to a lesser goal -- constancy of identity -- 
this is not so hard.  In general it is impossible to prove that 
Bryce is the "real" Bryce, but it is trivial to prove that 
Bryce is the same Bryce who has a certain Web page, and the
same Bryce who posted a certain article in archives.

We should blow off this attempt to do the impossible.

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