[plug] Alternatives to Verisign/Thawte

[Alex Polglaze]

> What would happen if when you register a Buisiness Name you get issued
> with an SSL certificate. You could then use that certificate to acquire
> a domain name. The domain and the certificate would then be linked to
> your business entity, and thus to the legal entity.
> 

When you apply for a Thawte certifiicate, you do have to prove who yoou say you 
are. You have to send copies of company and business registrations, which they 
check.

They also check when a renewal is done. this I know, because we have just done a 
renewal, July, and I had transferred ownership of the domain name between 
companies. They opicked this up and I had to supply further documentation to 
prove that I was still who i origibnally claimed to be.

> While this does not stop fraudulent businesses opening their doors, just
> like registering a domain or a name doesn't, it would link all these
> "virtual entities" together with one key.

Becuae I was on the receiving end of their check, if a site has a thawte 
certificate, it is good enough for me.

> 
> Let it be known that I'm not in favour of this.
> 
> I'd *much* rather go and visit Matt, who visited Kimberly, who visited
> Leon, who shook hands with Linus, and have my certificates signed by
> one-on-one transactions.
> 
> As I wrote that, I began to wonder how you might scale that - you can't.
> 
Thant's the oproblem. If somebody visits my site from overseas, they, in all 
probability have never heard of me, or Matt or you.

> So, if this E-commerce thing is ever going to work for real - for most
> things not just incedental things - we as a group of IT geeks are going
> to have to figure it out and lead the way.
> 
> I keep coming back to PLUG issuing certificates, but I'm sure there's a
> hole there somewhere too...

 From my business point of view, a PLUG certificate would be totally worthless 
for dealing with the general public. It might be fine for this group.

Alex

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