In an unsigned posting, it is written:

> On 3/01/14 22:42 PM, coderman wrote:
>> use case is long term (decade+) identity rather than privacy or
>> session authorization.

> Long term identity is not a concept in a vacuum.  Identity in software 
> business always relates to other people, your identity is like the sum 
> of the thoughts that *others have about you* unlike psychology where 
> identity is a concept of how you think about yourself.

There's no escape from identity being founded on how one thinks of
oneself.  Cogito ergo sum.  There's only one individual in the universe
who is qualified to know "I am Alice", and it ain't you or me, it's
Alice.  A good actress might convince others that she is Alice, but
Alice knows better, and Alice is the only individual who can know better
authoritatively.

But there is a way for Alice to identify herself to others, and it's
public key cryptography.  Alice can arrange that only she knows the
private key associated with a certain public key.  Alice can further
arrange that the sum of the thoughts that others have about her can be
founded only on expressions which are signed by her private key.  She
does this by signing all of her expressions and publicly declaring that
any expression purporting to be from her but not signed by her private
key is a forgery.

On the Internet, your identity is your private key.  If you have no
private key, you have no Internet identity.


-- 


 -- StealthMonger <[email protected]> who herewith declares
     that any expression purporting to be from Stealthmonger but not
     signed with the following key is a forgery.

Key: mailto:[email protected]?subject=send%20stealthmonger-key

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