North American Network Operators Group
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Re: Class "B" forsale (fwd)

  • From: Steven M. Bellovin
  • Date: Sun Mar 09 18:22:18 1997 
At 08:23 AM 3/10/97 +1000, Geoff Huston wrote:
>Of course this scenario breaks down quickly..
>
>Listed registrant A "sells" to B who "sells" to C who...
>
>Now the sucker who "buys" from C has the problem of tracing authenticity
>of the "title" C is selling. This is not easy, particularly if B is less
>than scrupulous and has "sold" title to a number of folk including
>C, or if C is unscrupulous and is "selling" without have concluded
>and transaction with B.

This can easily be solved in a number of ways.  For example, a public key
could be publicly associated with each address.  A transfer is accomplished
by signing a message to that effect.  Similarly -- and very importantly --
control over routing of that address is also governed by that
private/public key pair.  There's more to this protocol than I've
described, but it can be made to work.

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