On Fri, Dec 29, 2000 at 04:25:05AM -0500, dmolnar wrote:
In view of the recent thread ("That 70's Crypto Show") turning into yet another call for protocol building blocks -- and Wei Dai pointing out very sensibly the problems involved in turning protocols into building blocks -- I think it might help to compile a list of our favorite protocols and problems. Then maybe we can see what common components they share, if any. Finally see if we can make some progress in overcoming the problems that Wei Dai mentioned, or if it really isn't worth the bother.
Earlier you mentioned another problem that I left out, which is that even when two protocols use the same kind of component, they'll use subtly different versions of it to obtain certain performance or security properties or just to "fit in" with the rest of the protocol. I think eventually the problem will turn into how to redesign all of these protocols to use only components from a standard set. Rather than wait for that, I think anyone who wants to implement a protocol should just do it with the currently available tools. My perspective may be warped, but I think even without higher level building blocks, the crypto part of such a project is easy compared to other problems like OS integration, scaling, UI design, business planning, marketing, etc., etc. The fact that most interesting crypto protocols are not being used is almost certainly due to a combination of these other problems rather than the difficulty of implementing the crypto.
middlemen and contracts - Franklin and Durfee
Do you have a citation for Franklin and Durfee? Neither Google nor CiteSeer turned up anything.