From: Jeremey Barrett <jeremey@forequest.com>
Date: Tue, 4 Jun 1996 14:57:49 +0800
To: Norman Hardy <norm@netcom.com>
Subject: Re: Fate of Ecash if RSA is cracked?
In-Reply-To: <add8d6a4070210044ee4@DialupEudora>
Message-ID: <Pine.BSI.3.91.960603161453.20486C-100000@descartes.forequest.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


On Mon, 3 Jun 1996, Norman Hardy wrote:

> At 8:01 AM 6/3/96, Perry E. Metzger wrote:
> >Dr. Dimitri Vulis writes:
> ....
> >> This'll happen, probably sooner than later.
> >
> >Why do you assume that? There are plenty of problems that are
> >provably not solvable in non-exponential time even if P=NP. What makes
> >you think this one is going to be solved?
> >
> >.pm
> 
> The "Idea Futures" forum has established odds on this. The current odds are
> currently 60% that a 1024 bit number will be factored by 2010 and 30% that
> a 512 bit number will be factored by 1997.
> 

True, but by that time I'll be able to use 2048 or bigger keys with the same
or better performance as 1024 bit keys now.  As long as factoring is
exponential, you can always make it impossible to factor your keys. 
And I think it will always be exponential.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Jeremey Barrett
Senior Software Engineer			jeremey@forequest.com 
The ForeQuest Company       			http://www.forequest.com/

   "less is more."
		-- Mies van de Rohe.

   Ken Thompson has an automobile which he helped design.  Unlike most
   automobiles, it has neither speedometer, nor gas gage, nor any of the
   numerous idiot lights which plague the modern driver.  Rather, if the
   driver makes any mistake, a giant "?" lights up in the center of the
   dashboard.  "The experienced driver", he says, "will usually know
   what's wrong."

		-- 'fortune` output