CDR: Re: Public Key Infrastructure: An Artifact...

[Arnold G. Reinhold]

At 1:59 PM -0800 11/20/2000, Bram Cohen wrote:
>On Mon, 20 Nov 2000, Arnold G. Reinhold wrote:
>
>> Perry's last sentence gets to the heart of the matter. If CAs
>> included a financial guarantee of whatever it is they are asserting
>> when they issue a certificate, then all these problems would go away.
>
>They aren't going to.
>
>-Bram Cohen
>

It's still early in the game to be so certain. But if you are right, 
that in it self is an indictment of PKI. If there really is a market 
for trust establishment and a form of PKI is the low cost producer of 
trust, then someone should be able to make money by using their 
expertise to assemble a technology suite and sell trust insurance 
based on the spread between the risk perceived by the market and what 
they know to be a lower risk. If such services never develop, it 
either means there is no market or PKI doesn't have enough economic 
impact to cover the costs of starting such a business.

Arnold Reinhold