[cap-talk] crypto purism vs. Pet Names (was: Firefox breaks the principle of identifiability)

[David Wagner]

Zooko writes:
>Suppose I see an ad 
>on television for Acme brand shoes, and I want to go to the Acme web 
>site to learn more.  The "crypto purist's worldview" as elucidated by 
>Dave has it that Acme has to print their public key fingerprint at the 
>bottom of the screen during their ad, and I have to type it into my 
>computer to load their web site.  However, the Pet Names worldview is 
>better: I might have previously been securely introduced to the 
>television station, so I can type into my computer: "teevee's acme 
>shoes".

SDSI/SPKI-style names?  That's getting better.
I'll have to think about that one some more.

I am not sure whether I'm convinced yet.
(I'm not sure I'd want to have to type "KPIX's Coca Cola";
for instance, I might not remember what TV station I saw.
Also, this doesn't fit the "I saw an ad on a billboard" model too well.)
But it seems like it is getting closer.

Maybe part of the issue is that the crypto-purist view strikes me as
blind to the possibility that maybe there are some things that branding
and trademark do reasonably well.