From a developmental perspective, I think it makes more sense to first develop an integrated authentication/encryption feature, then later, if warranted, generalize it as a plugin. Trying to design a plugin interface to subsystem that is not well understood awkward, difficult, and likely to lead to deep misunderstandings, as the on-going debate clearly demonstrates.
Personally, I think SRP for authentication and AES (NI where supported) is all anyone needs or wants for the foreseeable future. Excessive generality is the enemy of decent architecture. Start with what you know and leave room to extend and revise as you get smarter. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Firebird-Devel mailing list, web interface at https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/firebird-devel