Re: Certificate proposal

[patrick@Verity.COM (Patrick Horgan)]

> 
> I may not have been clear: the certificate I was referring to was the one
> from Egghead, the one which I will use to make sure that I have a valid
> key for Egghead.  Such a certificate would of course not have my credit
> card number; it would probably have some information related to Egghead.
> My rhetorical point was that information would most plausibly be a NAME
> by which I would refer to Egghead.  I am still trying to understand how
> these proposals to take names out of the picture will apply to a
> commonplace situation like this one.

The certificate would identify the entity you're having commerce with.  It
doesn't have to have a name, the certificate would replace the need for a
name.  If you wanted a name, you could use the certificate to access it.
The certificate would give you a public key that would be the central
identifier.  Associated with it might be many attributes of the key-entity.
You might use the key to find out a name, and bank account number, or
an ip-address to use to communicate with.  Don't think of it as being a
name, "Egghead Software", and this is the key associated with it.  Think
of the key as the central thing.

Patrick
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