[clug] request for comment: new keysigning protocol
Nemo Maelstrom Thorx
clug at nemo.house.cx
Thu Feb 4 18:37:17 MST 2010
On Fri, Feb 05, 2010 at 06:16:41AM +1100, Paul Wayper did utter:
> >
> > http://woozle.org/~neale/papers/tank-tread.html
> >
>
> The problems with the tank tread method are that it requires a fair bit of
> space, puts pressure on the participants to tick things off and not hold the
> line up, a person can give different responses to different people (so the key
> that Eve gave me is not the same as the one she gave you, but we both sign it
> as if that's her correct key), and a few others that I can't think of off the
> top of my head. Don't underestimate the possibilities for the organisers to
> throw something screwy in as well.
>
> Hope this helps,
I'll pass that back and give it some thinks, but I have to argue the
'fair bit of space'. Which isn't to say that it's not space consuming
- it clearly is.
But it's *more* space efficient - and time efficient - than the 'folded
line' method as mentioned in both ad hoc, and Sassaman-Efficient. To
quote http://keysigning.org/methods/sassaman-efficient
> everyone forms a long line in the same order as their keys appear in the
> list. The head of the line then folds back on itself and the
> participants moving back along the line inspect the ID of each
> participant standing still.
This requires a line n participants long, which folds to become two n/2
lines in parallel, and then reduces down to 2 final participants. It's
a O(2n) process.
Tanktread is a O(n) process. Everyone signs a key on every step (there
being no end-of-line which has to wait for the start of the line to
reach), and everyone finishes at the same time.
The 'not holding the line up' is a valid concern - but how does this not
equally apply to the folded line method?
.../Nemo
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