🚀 go-pugleaf

There seems to be a lot of info available on digital signatures using
public key cryptography. Typically, these encode a hash of a message,
and maybe a timestamp, using the author's private key. The combination
of the document and signature guarentee authenticity.

However, this scheme has some problems. If an author wishes to remain
anonymous but wants to certify the integrity of a document as it
leaves his machine, he can't sign using his private key. Also, if an
author is not widely known, someone could delete the author's
signature from the plaintext, possibly make changes, and then sign the
document as his own. While a digital timestamp would resolve any
confrontation between the original author and the plagiarist, the
altered document could be widely distributed before the forgery was
discovered.

So, are there any techniques for creating unerasable digital
signatures that are inseparable from their documents? Methods for
implementing electronic money might be applicable.

--
Tim Moore                    moore@cs.utah.edu {bellcore,hplabs}!utah-cs!moore
"Wind in my hair - Shifting and drifting - Mechanical music - Adrenaline surge"
	- Rush