Moxie Marlinspike >> Blog >> SSL And the Future Of Authenticity

SSL And The Future Of Authenticity by @moxie #bitcoin

A trust decision can be easily revised at any time. It seems reasonable to think that we’ll need to anchor our trust somewhere. That we’ll pick some entity or group of entities to authenticate our communication. And right now, I could identify a set of organizations that I would trust to do this effectively. But what seems insane is to think that I could identify an organization who I would not only be willing to trust right now, but forever , without any future possibility of changing my mind based on that organization’s performance. If we’re locked into making a single decision now that will effect us forever, what incentive is there for the trust provider we select to act in a way that will continue to warrant our trust? Individual users have the option of deciding where to anchor their trust. Some say that better scoping would fix the “bad CA problem.” That if VeriSign...

Full article: http://www.thoughtcrime.org/blog/ssl-and-the-future-of-au...