On Tue, 30 Jul 2002, James A. Donald wrote: > The plan, already implemented, is to flood file sharing systems with > bogus files or broken files. The solution, not yet implemented, is to > attach digital signatures to files, and have the file sharing software > recognize certain signatures as good or bad.
This is completely unnecessary if you address the document with a cryptohash. An URI like http://localhost:4711/f70539bb32961f3d7dba42a9c51442c1218a9100 can only adress a particular document. If you serve broken content your node's reputation falls through the floor. Note that content is distributed, dynamic, and you have no idea what you're actually serving. > This involves scaling problems that have not yet been thought > through or implemented. > > As files get copied around, they would accrete ever more digitally > signed blessings. The signatures should be arbitrary nyms, as in > Kong, not true names. The files could also accrete digitally > signed discommendations, though such files would probably > propagate considerably less. The issue of node reputation is completely orthogonal to the document hashes not colliding. Reputation based systems are useful, because document URI http://localhost:4711/f70539bb32961f3d7dba42a9c51442c1218a9100 doesn't say what's in there. A claim needs to be backed by someone (preferably anonymous) with a good reputation trail. > When we approve a file, all the people who approved it already get > added to our trust list, thus helping us select files, and we are > told that so and so got added to our list of people who recommend > good files. This gives people an incentive to rate files, since > rating files gives them the ability to take advantage of other > people's ratings. > > If onr discommendd a file, those who discommend it are added to > our trust list, and those who commended it to our distrust list. > If, as will frequently happen, there is a conflict, we are told > that so and so commended so many files we like, and so many files > we dislike, so how should future commendations and > discommendations from him be handled.