"The four corner model is a valid business
model with all four parties
filling a valid business role .... totally independent of whether the
delivery vehicle involves offline, stale, static certificates."
filling a valid business role .... totally independent of whether the
delivery vehicle involves offline, stale, static certificates."
On the contrary. If the TTP (credential
issuer) is a part of a rust-network, the fourth
corner (acquirer) is redundant as there is
nothing a fourth party can add but costs[1]. That is, if we talk
about authentication, and not about the
transferal of money.
1] Including:
- Subscription fees,
- Transaction fees,
- Proprietary trust network software,
- Relying party credential issuance and
configuration
- Trust network arbitration software
I claim that the Four Corner model is the single
most hampering thing to wide-scale PKI-deployment
because it makes receivers' possibly pay for
messages that they maybe did not even wanted!
In paper-based messaging (excluding all kinds
of payment systems), the "sender"
typically puts on a stamp on a letter to get it distributed. This makes sense, four-corner does not.
By confusing payments with authentication, the
finical industry have shot themselves in
the foot. Have anybody heard about a
receiver-financed authentication trust network that actually makes money?
Or have you recently SWIFT TrustActed? I
don't think so.
May I end this letter citing an interview with Bill
Gates?
Q: In 1995, you wrote in your book, "The Road
Ahead," that IT will realize friction-free capitalism by excluding middlemen
and directly connecting buyers and sellers. Do you still believe in the
idea?
A: Oh absolutely. I believe there should be no markup in any area of the B2B marketplace. If you want to buy and sell from anyone in the world, you should just get very inexpensive software. They'll let you see every seller and let you do complex transactions without anybody marking up the cost of what you're buying. XML Web services are needed for that, and that's what we're doing. It's a key building block of friction-free capitalism.
A: Oh absolutely. I believe there should be no markup in any area of the B2B marketplace. If you want to buy and sell from anyone in the world, you should just get very inexpensive software. They'll let you see every seller and let you do complex transactions without anybody marking up the cost of what you're buying. XML Web services are needed for that, and that's what we're doing. It's a key building block of friction-free capitalism.
Anders
