| > Imagine a "E-commerce" front end: Instead of little-guy.com buying a cert | > which you are supposed to trust, they go to e-commerce.com and pay for a | > link. Everyone trusts e-commerce.com and its cert. e-commerce provides a | > guarantee of some sort to customers who go through it, and charges the | > little guys for the right. | | Do you mean like Amazon Marketplace and Amazon zShops? I think it's been | done already: | | http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/1161232/103-4791981-1614232 Well, yes, and eBay provides the same service. But how much protection are they providing for buyers? I think Amazon will cover the first $100 a customer paid. eBay gives you a bit of protection if you go with PayPal, but not a whole load - they rely on their reputation system.
e-commerce.com would bring up a page saying: "We guarantee that transactions up to $nnn with this site will be to your satisfaction or your money back". The merchant would specify the maximum dollar value, and pay e-commerce.com based on the limit and, presumably, his reputation with e-commerce. (This is one way it might be set up - there are certainly other ways. And, even in this style, the entire wording of the guarantee would be something agreed upon between the seller and e-commerce. -- Jerry --------------------------------------------------------------------- The Cryptography Mailing List Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe cryptography" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]