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There’s nothing cryptographic about this. It’s a central authority that either says “yes it’s real” or not. The system revolves around trust in that central aut
by hjk05 7y ago
There’s nothing cryptographic about this. It’s a central authority that either says “yes it’s real” or not. The system revolves around trust in that central authority. Everyone can easily fake a certificate which cannot be independently falsified without asking that central authority, who will be more likely to check their books than to do anything related to the actual certificate.
- cycrutchfield 7y agoDoes cryptographic imply decentralized?
- gruez 7y agoNo, but I think you'll agree that saying tears in a piece of paper "cryptography" is a stretch. It's not cryptography in the same way that a stamp or wax seal isn't cryptography, unless your definition of cryptography is "any method to protect the confidentiality and integrity of a document".
- cycrutchfield 7y agoDo you consider ThreeBallot to be an example of cryptography? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ThreeBallot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ThreeBallot
- gitgud 7y agoCryptographic implies math is used, which doesn't seem to be the case here.
- cycrutchfield 7y agoThat’s a rather restrictive definition of cryptography, don’t you think?
- gitgud 7y agoWell yes strictly speaking it's not just math, but usually it does imply math. What are some examples of cryptography without math of some kind?
- arpa 7y agoCharacter substitution comes to mind, as described in https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventure_of_the_Dancing_Men https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventure_of_the_Dancing...
- throwthro1029 7y agoThe word is much older than that. > 1650s, "art of writing in secret characters" https://www.etymonline.com/word/cryptography https://www.etymonline.com/word/cryptography
- hn_throwaway_99 7y agoThis is the second time in a couple weeks where I've seen a headline try to take a "crypto" angle for something ridiculously simple. There was another article touting drug cartels using "dollar bill serial numbers as random keys", https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20484197 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20484197, which was wrong - the keys weren't random, they were just unique and difficult to fake. I get the sense, with the general failure of blockchain to live up to its hype beyond Bitcoin, that we'll see a lot of "crypto-" this and that nonsense, similar to how everything was "e-" this and that in 2000.
- wp381640 7y ago> It’s a central authority that either says “yes it’s real” or not. /me looks at his browser CA roots
- theamk 7y agoBrowser uses cryptography, so one does not have to contact CA for every visit. Banksy does not, so you do have to contact “CA” every time.
- manicdee 7y agoThat’s right, the CA certificates in your browser can be tampered with because they aren’t the actual CA saying “yes it’s legit” they are a token containing a cryptographic key which claims to prove authenticity mathematically. Banksy is more secure than web browser crypto.
- HelloNurse 7y agoWhile not actually cryptographic in nature, it's a nontrivial authentication protocol that is better than a more traditional certificate, as discussed in the article, and potentially very impressive end enlightening for the not too technically minded people who follow art and art trade.