I've been thinking of an idea I've heard kicking around the list somewhat; that of digital pseudonyms and groups of people going by one name; likewise single people going by names that sound like groups. Let's say that three people decide to create a digital identity for themselves, maybe they plan on dealing with Blacknet as a group. So one of the first things they might do after getting together might be to create a pgp keypair with the name of the group on it. But who gets to hold the secret key? Remember they wish to be thought of and treated like a single entity. However they all need to be able to decrypt documents addressed to them, and none of them should be able to sign a document without the consent of the others. Is it possible to produce a set of keys (for example, 3 private 1 public) such that -all three private keys are needed to sign a message from that I.D. and -any of the private keys can decrypt anything encrypted with the single pubkey. The way I see it, three (or more) people could have a joint keyID, and if they wanted to post a message from that ID, the first person would write the message and sign it with his/her segment of the key. She/he would then encrypt with the second member's pubkey and annonymously remail it to #2, who would sign with the second key segment, re-encrypt with #3's pubkey, and send it on to #3, who would sign with the final key segment and anonymously post to the 'Pool'. If a response were posted, all three could read it without depending on the others. Is this possible? In whole or in part? I don't know the math well enough to figure it out myself, sorry if this is an obvious one. Happy Hunting, -Chris <cdodhner@indirect.com> ______________________________________________________________________________ Christian Douglas Odhner | "The NSA can have my secret key when they pry cdodhner@indirect.com | it from my cold, dead, hands... But they shall pgp 2.3 public key by finger | NEVER have the password it's encrypted with!" "If guns are outlawed, only the government will have guns." -E. Abbey My opinions are shareware. For a registered copy, send me 15$ in DigiCash. Key fingerprint = 58 62 A2 84 FD 4F 56 38 82 69 6F 08 E4 F1 79 11 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------