[67818] in Cypherpunks
Re: pgp, edi, s/mime
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Lucky Green)
Thu Oct 10 22:42:39 1996
Date: Thu, 10 Oct 1996 16:01:15 -0700 (PDT)
From: Lucky Green <shamrock@netcom.com>
To: Raph Levien <raph@cs.berkeley.edu>
Cc: Andrew Loewenstern <andrew_loewenstern@il.us.swissbank.com>,
cypherpunks@toad.com
In-Reply-To: <325D296E.796D3740@cs.berkeley.edu>
On Thu, 10 Oct 1996, Raph Levien wrote:
> I think you're referring to the possibility that PGP 3.0 may use a
> public key algorithm other than RSA. However, if this is the case, it
> won't be compatible with PGP's installed base. In addition, I don't
> believe that there has been a public key encryption algorithm proposed
> which is free of patent controversy.
In about a year, ElGamal will be free from any patent burden. I have
talked with leading users of RSA who believe that the savings by
switching from RSA to ElGamal may be a powerful incentive for doing so.
However, the general feeling is that somebody, not said corporations,
would have to first set up an infrastructure that uses ElGamal.
A chicken and egg problem? Or another Cypherpunks project?
--Lucky, who'd really would like to see ElGamal in wider use.
