Subject: Re: [Bitcoin-development] Does anyone have anything at all signed by Satoshi's PGP key?

From: Venzen <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 15 Sep 2014 21:44:05 +0700

Funny that you should describe WoT that way. According to some
psycho-analysts the act of making love to a partner is actually a
realization of our subconscious desire to make love to ourselves.

So, in this sense, WoT geeks are indeed masturbating, but it's with
the good purpose of ensuring that it's being done via the intended
recipient and not some imposter or unsuspecting bystander.

That's a valid concern, especially as Bitcoin development ranks grow
and branch beyond a small core team.

On 09/15/2014 08:08 PM, Jeff Garzik wrote:
> On Mon, Sep 15, 2014 at 3:23 AM, Thomas Zander
> <[email-masked]> wrote:
>> Any and all PGP related howtos will tell you that you should not
>> trust or sign a formerly-untrusted PGP (or GPG for that matter)
>> key without seeing that person in real life, verifying their
>> identity etc.
> 
> Such guidelines are a perfect example of why PGP WoT is useless
> and stupid geek wanking.
> 
> A person's behavioural signature is what is relevant.  We know how 
> Satoshi coded and wrote.  It was the online Satoshi with which we 
> interacted.  The online Satoshi's PGP signature would be fine... 
> assuming he established a pattern of use.
> 
> As another example, I know the code contributions and PGP key
> signed by the online entity known as "sipa."  At a bitcoin conf I
> met a person with photo id labelled "Pieter Wuille" who claimed to
> be sipa, but that could have been an actor.  Absent a laborious and
> boring signed challenge process, for all we know, "sipa" is a
> supercomputing cluster of 500 gnomes.
> 
> The point is, the "online entity known as Satoshi" is the relevant 
> fingerprint.  That is easily established without any in-person 
> meetings.
>