On Sat, 15 Jun 2002, Morlock Elloi wrote:
Ultimately it's impossible to have security where one side is a machine handling many live customers. Whatever central machine does can be emulated or simulated in human's eyes - by subverting the machine itself, the transport mechanism or the client machine/software. This is the ultimate limit of squeezing out middlemen (aka e-commerce.)
You completely overlook distributed networks where there isn't a central server. That's the next wave. As to squeezing out middlemen, your argument actually argues for their elimination, they're a security/subversion point that isn't under control of either of the 'real' parties in the transaction. No, 'middle man' is a consequence of technology, or the lack of it. As the technology matures you'll see the market reduce to something more 'theoretical' in nature; the two parties to each transaction and a neutral third party to resolve disputes.
The security is proportional to wetware cycles burned per transaction.
Not even close. Consider cracking 802.11b for example. The trick to crack it isn't to focus on one transaction but to grab several million. Security isn't this simple to define. -- ____________________________________________________________________ When I die, I would like to be born again as me. Hugh Hefner ravage@ssz.com www.ssz.com jchoate@open-forge.org www.open-forge.org --------------------------------------------------------------------