the existing pgp "infrastructure" already does most of what you want.
pgp (use gpg, its much better) relies on people establishing "trust
chains" between signatures. ie: B has verified and signed C's key. A
has verified and signed B's key. A now has a "trust chain" to C and
can assume that C's key is trustworthy. pgp calls this "introducing"
other people.
i sign all my work email (i really should sign all my other mail too,
i just haven't got around to copying keys between my accounts), and i
have occasionally received automated mail saying "i received a signed
mail from you, but i don't have your public key to verify it. can you
also send me your public key" (which of course, is open to all sorts
of spoofing, unless a trust chain exists). so some people are
automatically ensuring authentication.
its merely a matter of enforcing authentication (where required),
which is really only a procmail script or two (and a little effort to
actually gather signatures).
brief gpg intro talk (and keysigning) ?
(guess we wait until the securityfest)
--
- Gus
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