From: tcmay@netcom.com (Timothy C. May) Message-Id: <9310181717.AA24067@netcom5.netcom.com> Subject: Uniqueness and "is-a-person" credentials Date: Mon, 18 Oct 93 10:17:35 PDT

I don't like the idea of state-run registries of "legal persons." Better to live with the occasional vagaries of digital pseuodonyms than to ban them.

Amen. I kept trying to point out on pem-dev, until it became obvious that I was speaking a foreign language, that the identity *is* a person's public key. It's already unique and has a firm definition -- all the definition you need. It means: "the person or people who have access to the matching private key". That's all you need. Everything else comes from relationships and relationships are established by message transmissions and files of history. The flesh and blood body doesn't matter in cyberspace unless/until you start mixing the two worlds (eg., using money, trying to arrest someone, pairing up for a sexual fling, ...). - Carl