[vworld-tech] Ultimate MMO Platform

[J C Lawrence]

On Mon, 12 Apr 2004 09:45:59 +0100 
Crosbie Fitch <crosbie at cyberspaceengineers.org> wrote:
> From: J C Lawrence 

>> Right, and I was specifically contrasting to those systems which
>> assume untrusted and untrustworthy nodes, and yet maintain logical
>> consistency.  PGP assumes that private keys are inviolate and
>> trustworthy.  The whole system breaks down if that assumption can't
>> be maintained.

> Trust is simply a historical measure of reliability/accuracy/quality.

Trust need not be historical.  It can be pseudo-realtime through sanity
and cross-checks of current events.

> If one node truly can keep its private key secret then its identity is
> reliable (until/unless someone breaks that private key by brute
> force).

The problem is that it is (generically) impossible to tell the
difference between a secret key and a compromised key.

> If all nodes have to register their identity, then any duplication of
> identity should be relatively quick to detect. 

NodeA registers with identity X, and key Y and proceeds to use that
arrangement.

NodeB proceeds to also use identity X and key Y, but doesn't register.

How do you detect this?

-- 
J C Lawrence
---------(*)                Satan, oscillate my metallic sonatas.
claw at kanga.nu               He lived as a devil, eh?
http://www.kanga.nu/~claw/  Evil is a name of a foeman, as I live.