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0 pointssombremesa4y ago0 comments

> While you're correct that a 4chan-like mechanism would provide a means of authentication, the hash would not be human-recognizable easily (basically, not meaningful)

This part can be addressed easily with avatars such as those Gravatar makes. Using a blockchain instead seems like a huge overkill, and also brings 'login' back into the equation, albeit with a different connotation than traditional login.

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publiush4y ago· 2 in thread

> This part can be addressed easily with avatars such as those Gravatar makes. Using a blockchain instead seems like a huge overkill, and also brings 'login' back into the equation because most websites will use something like Metamask, which you have to log into.

A gravatar is great for a profile photo, but in the end, there's no guarantee that the message viewed by a user was actually written by the poster. A site admin could simply inject posts as that user.

With signed messages, only those who possess the key could have created the signature for the signed message. Even a site admin cannot edit the message and get away with it (since the signature wouldn't validate).

sombremesaOP4y ago

> in the end, there's no guarantee that the message viewed by a user was actually written by the poster

If you think about it, this is also true for web3 — true enough that it's broken.

We don't live in a world where you can't take things from people, etc.

Ultimately, society works because we don't really need ironclad guarantees — and we don't have any.

publiush4y ago

> If you think about it, this is also true for web3 — true enough that it's broken.

You absolutely cannot fake a message being cryptographically signed without providing a broken verification function.

> We don't live in a world where you can't take things from people, etc.

The half glass empty approach is one method. The other method is to review the primitives we have in place today and explore different permutations that allow us to route around our adversities. That's the Hacker way. Of course, we do it with code.

> Ultimately, society works because we don't really need ironclad guarantees like that.

The society you live in is very different from mine. Fraud and impersonation are real. [1]

[1] https://www.theverge.com/2016/11/23/13739026/reddit-ceo-stev...

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