Policy-Discussion

[Ian G <iang AT iang.org>]

On 21/03/2010 06:47, Guillaume ROMAGNY wrote:

> Also as Philipp G would tell we could look at Microsoft API
> http://www.credentica.com/ what to do to be compliant.


Hi Guillaume,
just on Credentica alone.  This is Stefan Brands' company to pursue his 
patents, more or less.  His company has built a tool-kit to exploit the 
patents, which has attracted some attention.  There is a book he has 
written that explains it all.

The company was purchased (or similar) by Microsoft in around 2008. 
Now, this was done in a time that InfoCard (or whatever it is called 
now) was rising within Microsoft, which is to say, they had their demos, 
they had done their pre-marketing blitz and were hoping it would take 
the world by storm.  InfoCard and Brandsian concepts somewhat meshed 
together.

But, InfoCard didn't really survive.  I'm not sure why, it is either 
because it couple itself too closely to Vista, or because the world 
simply doesn't want Microsoft to control the "identity agenda".  As you 
mention, that boat has sailed.

Back to Credentica.  A couple of points: it isn't PKI as we know it, 
which is to say there are no / few standards in the PKI way.  Secondly, 
in order for it to do its thing, it needs smart cards.  So both of these 
things means that Credentica is a long way from where CAcert currently 
is.  Which is to say, it could be a fun project, but is in no way 
related to our current priorities.


iang

PS: disclosure:  stefan is an old buddy of mine, I once held licences to 
use his patents for digital cash.  He is a Dutch cryptographer who 
studied under David Chaum, the cryptographer who invented digital cash 
or more precisely the blinding formula.  Stefan took that to the next 
level and created a family of "blinded" information exchanges.  It is 
interesting primarily because of its ground-breaking crypto.