Trustworthy contacts

[Brian Gladman]

----- Original Message -----
From: "George Foot" <georgefoot@oxted.demon.co.uk>
To: <ukcrypto@maillist.ox.ac.uk>
Sent: Sunday, September 10, 2000 11:26 AM
Subject: Re: Trustworthy contacts


> September 10th. 2000
>
> Dear Brian,
>
> YES;  Your wording is better and more precise than mine.
>
> My main point however is that trust cannot be the product of a
> "machine"  no matter how complex that is -- and  a machine tends
> to be elaborated further as time proceeds especially if is shown to
> be failing.
>
> Trust essentially requires "humans" somewhere in the chain and
> of course a number of mechanisms for that purpose already exist
> in commercial life.

Agreed, although the human element can be delegated to an automatic process
and might hence appear to be absent.

> All this has been said before but is not appreciated sufficiently by
> people who seek a machine solution and encumber E-commerce
> with new ideas which have superficial gloss but are flawed.

Agreed - although there are good uses of PK technology in e-commerce.

      Brian