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Re: [arin-announce] ARIN Resource Certification Update


From: Carlos Martinez-Cagnazzo <carlos () lacnic net>
Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2011 14:10:11 -0200

There's a big difference. If a bank screws up and loses $5,000 of my
money, I
can (at least potentially) sue them and recover $5,000 which is  pretty much
identical to the $5,000 I lost.  If a key escrow company loses my private key,
getting back an identical private key is exactly the *wrong* solution.

Crypto keys are not interchangable like dollar bills.
I never suggested that they were. I tried to point out a set of
institutions on which we place similar, if not higher, levels of trust
to those required to store a crypto key.

If your crypto bank loses your key, you can always revoke and resign.
And you'll be back on the air much faster than you can recover $5k from
a failed bank. And please do not get me out of context, I never said the
hosted solution was perfect, nor that the analogy applicable to every
aspect.

And I am not trying to extend the success of RIPE's hosted solution to
"everybody's digital identity". It is a vertical solution that is doing
well (and will hopefully continue to do so) on a vertical application.
For sure, it is probably not an example you can extend to other
applications.

Going back to money, I would *never* trust a hosted solution to hold a
key I use to access my online banking. This would clearly be a case
where a hosted solution is not applicable.

regards

Carlos

-- Carlos M. Martinez LACNIC I+D PGP KeyID 0xD51507A2 Phone:
+598-2604-2222 ext. 4419

        
Carlos Martinez Cagnazzo <carlos () lacnic net>


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