Authenticating People With Certificate Chains

submited by

Style Pass

2024-10-30 00:30:05

We have the means to change how the world works. We can get rid of passwords, password managers, strength tests, password recovery flows, account registration, data breaches, identity theft, and on and on. We can build something better and safer than passkeys. We can use personal certificate authorities.

When we deal with people, in person or via some kind of communication device, we need to be sure we are dealing with the person we expect. The process of determining that the other party is who they claim to be is authentication. In person this may be as simple as recognizing someone by their face or voice. Over a phone we may depend on the phone number of whoever is calling us. Different situations call for different levels of certainty, and therefore different mechanisms of authenticating the other person. If I’m just saying ‘hi’ to a neighbor I really don’t care to ensure they are who they claim to be. If I’m buying a house, I care very much.

Any given person has a single identity. They may have many personas: employee, proprietor, author, parent, child. For a particular relationship they may use a particular persona, and they may or may not want that persona tied to their identity. The ability of a person to act anonymously, or pseudonymously, is essential in modern society.