EU Draft Digital Signature Directive

Sun, 23 Aug 1998 11:11:25 -0500

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In <3.0.32.19980822114103.006962a0@mail.netkonect.co.uk>, on 08/22/98 
   at 05:42 AM, Nicholas Bohm <nbohm@ernest.net> said:

>More crucially, why should recognition depend on a signature being
>certified by a third party at all?  If you know me, and I give you my
>public key in person, and you rely on my signature made with the
>corresponding private key, why should recognition of that signature be
>denied merely because no third party certified it?

This is the fundamental flaw in government mandated systems; they can
never conceive of a system that does not require their participation.

Every man is his own CA, or TTP, or whatever the current catch phrase is.
The individual will always have the final say so in what he "trusts" and
what he does not. Top down, government mandated, you must trust this and
you must not trust that, is just poor design that will only lend itself to
abuse and inefficiencies.

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