Government credentials and picture IDs not a useful thing for Cypherpunks to require

[Tim May]

On Friday, September 21, 2001, at 11:04 AM, V Alex Brennen wrote:

> A key-signing party is a get-together with PGP users for the purpose of
> meeting other PGP users and signing each other's keys. This helps to
> extend the "web of trust" to a great degree. Also, it sometimes serves 
> as
> a forum to discuss strong cryptography, computer security, and related
> issues.
>
>
> Required Items?
>
> 1. Physical attendance
> 2. Positive picture ID
> 3. A printout of your PGP key's fingerprint information
> 4. A pen/pencil or whatever you'd like to write with


It's too bad so many people are so confused about what a "Web of Trust" 
is.

Do I need a "positive picture ID" of Lucky Green to communicate with him 
securely? Black Unicorn? Pr0duct Cypher? Eric Hughes? Attila the Hun?

The notion that a particular credential with a picture on it means 
anything, or should be given weight, is one of the most dangerous ideas 
there is. For the obvious reasons.

As a hint, the people you _don't_ want to trust are a helluva lot more 
likely to have nice, neat picture IDs than people like Lucky Green are.

--Tim May (not my true name)