[8089] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: Class "B" forsale (fwd)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Steven M. Bellovin)
Sun Mar 9 18:17:25 1997
Date: Sun, 09 Mar 1997 22:56:04 -0500
To: Geoff Huston <gih@telstra.net>
From: "Steven M. Bellovin" <smb@research.att.com>
Cc: piara@apnic.net, nanog@MERIT.EDU
At 08:23 AM 3/10/97 +1000, Geoff Huston wrote:
>Of course this scenario breaks down quickly..
>
>Listed registrant A "sells" to B who "sells" to C who...
>
>Now the sucker who "buys" from C has the problem of tracing authenticity
>of the "title" C is selling. This is not easy, particularly if B is less
>than scrupulous and has "sold" title to a number of folk including
>C, or if C is unscrupulous and is "selling" without have concluded
>and transaction with B.
This can easily be solved in a number of ways. For example, a public key
could be publicly associated with each address. A transfer is accomplished
by signing a message to that effect. Similarly -- and very importantly --
control over routing of that address is also governed by that
private/public key pair. There's more to this protocol than I've
described, but it can be made to work.
