> > Any solution which requires uniqueness also requires a singular ultimate
> > authority.
> Not really. You can just take random numbers. If you have enough bits
> (and a good RNG) the probability of collision would be less than
> probability of an asteroid wiping the life on Earth in the next year.
That doesn't help in this case. You need a way to verify ownership of an
identifier. I don't want anyone else to be able to claim my identifier.
Perhaps we can devise a scheme where I generate a random number and morph
it into a 'private key'. Then I pass it through some algorithm to generate
a 'public key' which is the identifier that I use. I then use the private
key to prove my ownership of the public key. Nobody else can claim my public
key because they don't know the corresponding private key.
In fact, you could just use an RSA public key as the identifier directly.
This is likely not the best algorithm, but it's certainly an existence proof
that such algorithms can be devised without difficulty.
In fact, I'm going to call my patent attorney instead of sending this
email. ;)
DS
