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Re: Idea: Namecoin eMail

Posted: Mon May 04, 2015 8:22 am
by biolizard89
kresp0 wrote:
biolizard89 wrote:Thanks for that info. So it sounds like adding id/ to GPG would be the logical step. Maybe there would be a way to have NMControl follow the keyserver protocol, so that GPG doesn't need changes itself?
I guess that it may be possible to have an id/ keyserver to retrieve keys. When someone ask for a key, the server would search, download and verify the key based on the blockchain information and then upload it to the client.

But, what about submitting a key to the server? The server would verify and store the key, sure. But how is that reflected on the blockchain? A write operation has some cost. Who pays it? Maybe some rich namecoiner could afford to sponsor a server. Or the MIT Digital Currency Initiative, as they (MIT) also have a nice PGP keyserver :roll:

Another problem submitting keys is where to store them. If I verify your identity and key fingerprint and sign your key, where on the blockchain should that information go? Should that information be on the blockchain at all? The keyserver cannot touch id/user as they do not have the private key. Maybe the server should create another identity to put there a link and fingerprint to the received signed keys?

After 2 minutes of thought, I think that a id/ keyserver which acts like a normal gpg keyserver but also just read the information on the blockchain could be useful enough. In the example before, the server would verify and upload the keys to the rest of normal keyservers. It may also scan the whole blockchain and upload the valid keys to the public keyservers if they are not already there.
I was mainly talking about retrieving keys from the keyserver. Submitting a key should be done on the wallet side IMHO, not by the keyserver, although we could make the keyserver construct a name operation and send it to the wallet. Signing other people's keys is totally out of the scope of id/; John Kenney is particularly interested in WoT applications of Namecoin, maybe talk to him on IRC?

Re: Idea: Namecoin eMail

Posted: Mon May 04, 2015 4:35 pm
by domob
biolizard89 wrote:I was mainly talking about retrieving keys from the keyserver. Submitting a key should be done on the wallet side IMHO, not by the keyserver, although we could make the keyserver construct a name operation and send it to the wallet. Signing other people's keys is totally out of the scope of id/; John Kenney is particularly interested in WoT applications of Namecoin, maybe talk to him on IRC?
Exactly. I like this idea - should be really straight-forward to set up such a keyserver locally (or even on a "trusted" server for those who do not want to run it locally and still want to try it out). Does anyone know how the keyserver protocol works? (I guess it is part of the respective RFCs, but I've never bothered to look at the details so far.)

Re: Idea: Namecoin eMail

Posted: Mon May 04, 2015 9:18 pm
by kresp0
domob wrote:Does anyone know how the keyserver protocol works? (I guess it is part of the respective RFCs, but I've never bothered to look at the details so far.)
OpenPGP HTTP Keyserver Protocol (HKP) (Draft)

There are some free software implementations. SKS is used by the MIT keyserver. PHKP is another one written on PHP but is not production-ready.

Re: Idea: Namecoin eMail

Posted: Mon May 11, 2015 3:36 pm
by johnc
phelix wrote:
johnc wrote:can nmcontrol theoretically sign/encrypt messages? that' would be great.
You mean like the satoshi client? NMControl does not usually handle private or public keys.

The signing/encryption part should be easy to implement (Bitcointalk: Encrypt/decrypt arbitrary text using bitcoin keys!)
Yeah, but let's see it from a different perspective, how about nmcontrol showing a QR code just like "whatsapp web" does and then you scanning it and using namecoins from your phone to release/sign the transaction / challenge. It should work, and by the way, it should allow a wallet in your computer to have 2FA. And the mobile wallet don't need a gui for name operations or checking the name database since nmcontrol does that.

Re: Idea: Namecoin eMail

Posted: Mon May 11, 2015 5:39 pm
by biolizard89
johnc wrote:
phelix wrote:
johnc wrote:can nmcontrol theoretically sign/encrypt messages? that' would be great.
You mean like the satoshi client? NMControl does not usually handle private or public keys.

The signing/encryption part should be easy to implement (Bitcointalk: Encrypt/decrypt arbitrary text using bitcoin keys!)
Yeah, but let's see it from a different perspective, how about nmcontrol showing a QR code just like "whatsapp web" does and then you scanning it and using namecoins from your phone to release/sign the transaction / challenge. It should work, and by the way, it should allow a wallet in your computer to have 2FA. And the mobile wallet don't need a gui for name operations or checking the name database since nmcontrol does that.
I don't follow what this post has to do with the topic of this thread. Please start a new thread if you want to talk about that.