[cap-talk] A petname toolbar for Firefox

[Ian G]

Trevor Perrin wrote:

>> But I'd rather store X instead of H(X); it gives
>> me more flexibility.  And in this case, there is an argument that 
>> perhaps
>> you'd rather display (CA pubkey, domain name) rather than a hash, in 
>> case
>> users find it meaningful to examine the domain name associated with some
>> given petname.
>
>
> I wouldn't stop users from storing or displaying (fingerprint, domain 
> name), if they consider the domain name useful metadata or a 
> "nickname" for the fingerprint (the self-authenticating name).  But 
> it's nice if the self-authenticating name is as small and 
> self-contained as possible, since users will probably have to 
> manipulate it to some extent (sharing it, typing it, comparing it, etc.).


Untangling this a little, what we have are
2 ZTs loosely connected in some fashion
that remains elusive right now.

ZT1 is the domain name system.  This is
human/centralised.  ZT2 is the key system,
which is secure/decentralised.

The task appears to be to graft these two
together in such a way as to get a system
that is better than the sum of the parts.

Now, there is a third furfy, in that ZT1 has
been designated as non-human, even tho
the domain system is nominally a human-
understandable name system.

On top of all that, we wish to add petnames
in order to finish off the human element,
and perhaps leave the domain names as
nicknames.  Hmm maybe that's presumptious
at the moment.

In all that, the CA cert seems to be yet
another system, another ZT along the
side, that has a strong position where it
is a bridge from ZT1 to ZT2.  Except, every
which way we look at it, it seems to not add
any value after the Introduction.  So in this
sense, it is not really part of the naming
system.

Just some observations!

iang

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