On 21/12/10 10:52, Ian G wrote:
> On 19/12/10 3:58 AM, Stephane Bortzmeyer wrote:
> 
>> (I even suspect it is impossible to find a pure P2P secure solution,
>> where all peers would stay equal. It is just a personal suspicion not,
>> it seems, a scientifically proven result.)
> 
> Hmmm, a challenge :)  How about:
> 
> 1.  Security only means something in the context of people.
> 2.  All people are different.
> 3.  Therefore, all security systems will be non-symmetric.

Right, but it doesn't follow that non-symmetric systems have to be
non-P2P. You can have a pure P2P system in which different people come
to different judgements about the security properties (Cheng and
Friedman's Sybilproof reputation mechanisms, for example).

How about this, as a riff on Zooko's triangle: you can have equality or
consensus, but not both.

> 4.  And a pure secure (technical) solution is impossible, including any 
> technical notions of symmetry.  QED!
> 
> The mistake would be thinking that a technical P2P system can deliver a 
> security system.  It can't really, what it can do is deliver a set of 
> technical characteristics which might form part of a security system as 
> per its users' demands.

True... but just as true if you remove the word "P2P". ;-)

Cheers,
Michael
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