On 30 Nov 2001, at 13:34, Sunder wrote:
Simple. Once the buyer has the keys she issues an email saying "I'm changing my keys, here's the new public key" and signs it with the old key - thus proving that the nym's original message was valid, thus invalidating the old one. Duh!
Any sort of protocol along these lines will only be successful if people are willing to accept the buying and selling of keys along with associated reputations as valid. I don't think people will. A message along the lines of "I've discovered my key has been compromised, so I'm changing it, but I'm signing it with the old (admittedly compromised) key" should not be believed. The message can as easily come from the compromisor as compromisee, more easily in fact, since a nym thief will doubtless know he's stolen a nym before the victim realizes it. The proper response to such a message would be to indeed view the old key as compromised, but to put no confidence in the "new key" unless it can be verified via an inpendent channel. For a pure pseudonym (not in any way attached to any known physical entity) I'm not sure there is an indendent channel. George George