From: tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)
Date: Tue, 20 Feb 1996 16:17:13 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Compelling Advantage of Public Key Systems
Message-ID: <ad4eb80109021004fceb@[205.199.118.202]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



This is a really, really basic point, but it seems to be lost by some of
the folks talking about "virtual one-time pads," "power one-time pads," and
"visual power agents one-time pads."

To wit: public key systems drastically simplify the whole key exchange problem.

Thus, I can send an encrypted message to any of you for whom I have a
public key, or can easily get a public key for, and then only the holder of
the private key can decrypt. (There are the usual wrinkles about whether
the public key is really that of the person you think it is for, MITM,
etc., but these are true of any system, and in practice present little
problem.)

Any schemes which use symmetric key systems, including one time pads, must
of necessity involve prior arrangement to exchange keying materials.
Nothing can get around this.

The "revolution in cryptography" comes from this basic feature of public
key cryptosystems. Period.

I suggest we not waste our time on the "IPG" system. Whether it is secure
or not is not the point. It's cumbersomeness and its $15 a month for some
nominally random-looking bits (though known to IPG, so what's the point?)
will kill it dead.

Let those who use it be examples of evolution in action.

--Tim May

Boycott espionage-enabled software!
We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^756839 - 1  | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."