So far, everybody on the net has discussed the fun part(s) of the CA issue. The techies talk about protocol, encryption ... in short the real FUN stuff. I have enjoyed diverging opinions of some of the participants. Many make excellent points and have taught me more than I ever dreamed to learn. Lawyers are already making money and preparing for the future :-) Some lawyers argue about liabilities and drool over new laws being proposed all over the country by other lawyers to guarantee future lawsuits. Another lawyer does not believe CAs are an option and make a good buck selling books to prove it (Electronic Commerce Law-Ben Wright squire) another publishes the American Bar Association CA liabilities, names it draft of the digital signature guidelines and goes to work for Verisign (CA? DS? UH?). I can keep talking about good stuff that has happen in the last few months for about everyone interested in the last frontier (the electronic one) and its trading posts (electronic commerce), but the fact is that there are no CAs in full production yet. Yeah! Verisign is around .... Santa Clara. Of course I have other choices (Did I say great choices?) like Cost in Sweden and at one time EuroCert in England was advertising on the net. I have been asking myself ... WHY? I can't accept the standard response: Fear to liability! Granted that the liability factor is important but my gut feeling tells me that's not the whole story. The hardware and the software is out there (I haven't commented on the quality of this stuff!). I thought that several companies who have indicated interest have all it takes to make a successfull CA but nobody seem to move reasonably fast. Is it possible that the process of issuing and maintaining a certificate is so complex and expensive? I think that MITRE did a study for NIST and they came-up with a cost of $800 per year per federal employee to maintain and administer a Federal CA. Any suggestion? PS I want to thank Robert Hettinga for his excellent work promoting the principles of the Cypherpunks, and for diseminating critical information that helps shape the corporate world for a better electronic future. ------------------------------------- Juan Rodriguez i Torrent torrejr@pcnet.com 11/27/95 23:54:24 -------------------------------------