Author: Chris D'Costa 2014-04-01 12:20:37
Published on: 2014-04-01T12:20:37+00:00
Chris D'Costa, a developer, discussed the use of decentralized ledgers for security transmission of person-to-person pay-to addresses on their hardware wallet. The system uses "device keys" to provide advanced knowledge of public keys that can be used to encrypt messages to an intended recipient without a third-party certificate authority. These device keys are not related in any way to Bitcoin keys but have specific use cases. Chris called it the "Web-of-trust re-imagined." Jeff Garzik raised concerns about how the ledger would reflect keys that expire or are compromised and suggested that there is a lot of computer science involved in making sure the public ledger is accurate. He also stated that other methods need less hand-wavy details and require code before they can be recognized as useful. In response, Chris explained that they are looking at something called proof-of-life for the device keys, where devices send a last heard from date to ensure records are not expired. If a record has been expired, the device key will require reinitialization, which will make a new device key set, a new proof of life date, and then the Bitcoin keys (BIP32) can be restored. Chris further clarified that they have not assumed anything about other technologies without asking if they meet all the requirements raised, including namecoin. They are yet to be convinced that any existing technologies meet those requirements, which is why they are looking at creating an alternative that does not involve coins but still provides some of the vital properties that the distributed ledger offers.
Updated on: 2023-06-08T18:02:12.973491+00:00