Re: Thinking outside the box - Web of Trust

On 2013-03-17 10:59:55 +0000, Cedric Knight wrote:
> On 17/03/13 05:16, Marc Perkel wrote:
> > OK - let's think outside the box. Let's pretend e,ail as we know is
> > going away and we are going to create an entirely new system from
> > scratch. Nothing has to be compatible. How would we do it right?
> 
> An invitation to brainstorm and daydream?  Why not?
> 
> I think you'd be looking for a means of private communication that is
> flexible, administratively simple, not tied to any particular provider,
> but which is free to require more modern processor resources and
> connectivity than SMTP.  I'd suggest a decentralised web of trust where
> each address is linked to a public key (as at present there would be a
> potential many-to-many relation between address and individual, but in
> most cases one address is one individual).

That reminds me of a system I suggested in 2005:
http://www.hjp.at/projekte/messaging/

(Some of you have probably seen this before)

I was thinking about a separate protocol at the time, but it could be
done over SMTP (or UUCP, as somebody pointed out).

> One recipient site may
> choose to trust given academic institution's key with trust 0.9, which
> trusts most of its students with trust 0.9, which to the first
> (recipient) site means 0.81.  That institution has the responsibility of
> publishing its trust level for compromised student accounts,

Better to publish it for all accounts. 

> but that doesn't stop any other site also having an opinion
> (equivalent of RBLs). Similarly, default trust levels might be 0.5 for
> a good freemail/free-ID provider (if such things are even needed),
> which might trust new accounts starting at 0.01 until behaviour (such
> as two-way correspondence with trusted accounts) earns them trust.

Yes, explicit trust levels might be useful. 


	hp

-- 
   _  | Peter J. Holzer    | Der eigene Verstand bleibt gefühlt messer-
|_|_) | Sysadmin WSR       | scharf. Aber die restliche Welt blickt's
| |   | [email protected]         | immer weniger.
__/   | http://www.hjp.at/ |   -- Matthias Kohrs in desd

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