On Fri, 17 Oct 1997, Glen Turner wrote:
> (called "certificates") to people and organisations.
>
> The major roles of a CA are:
>
> - verify the person's identity.
>
> - issue a private key to that person.
>
> - provide that person's public key to others.
>
> all in a cryptographically secure fashion.
<snip>explanation of how such a system might work</snip>
The question of whether there is a proper role for CAs is a difficult one.
I suppose we could extend the procedure of government scheme of 100 points
for a bank account to cover the issue of certificates. We could also give
a line function to a central bank changing its supervisory role.
As we know not every government control its banking industry with the due
concern that such deserves.
It seems to me that there are a lot of similarities with international
trade and all the problems that have been historically associated with
dealing with 'strangers' who may/may not deliver the goods or goods as
described once they have your money. Banks have played a pivotal role in
providing the stability for such trade and generally rely on the
International Chamber of Commerce Rules to make it work, even when there
are no scams involved.
Nevertheless, the bank role fundamentally is to "check the paperwork" and
there is no sighting of the goods or services due for delivery. The
Chambers of Commerce and their ilk issue "Certificates of Origin" on
demand, again without sighting the goods/services. It's a real gap in the
working of the system and any certification scheme should not follow
suite.
Commerce across jurisdictions has historically had its problems and
e-commerce will have the same sui generis problems only in greater number
as the internet technology allows a lot more people and businesses to
trade around the world. Maybe it's only a matter of scale as the two
points of control are not going to change - ie the banks for foreign
exchange and customs for entry. On the other aspect, international
trade dispute resolution seems a real pain.
Rob...
Robert Hazeltine Phone: +61 (2) 4736 02857
University of Western Sydney, Nepean Email: r.hazeltine@uws.edu.au