Re: [foaf-protocols] cert:fingerprint ?

On 27 Oct 2011, at 11:04, Toby Inkster wrote:

> On Tue, 25 Oct 2011 12:33:07 -0400
> Kingsley Idehen <kidehen@openlinksw.com> wrote:
> 
>> Since we have cert:key, what about cert:fingerprint?
> 
> Currently I'm just using rdfs:label for this purpose.
> 
> <#me> cert:key [
> 	rdfs:label "...." ;
> 	cert:modulus "...." ;
> 	...
> 	] .

rdfs:label is a good way to help us remember when we made a public key, so that if we loose control of its private key we can remember which key on the server we wish to delete.

But Kingsley is looking for something else: he wishing to have a shorter version of the key, so that he can put the key in a tweet. It seems that sometimes people use a hash of a certificate as a short way of identifying the certificate. So how well this works will depend on the difficulty of going from the hash back to the key.

Perhaps there is a way of doing a hash of a public key, so that we don't have to be tied to a certificate format. This lack of tie in to certificate formats is going to be more and more valuable I think, as we now have PGP, X509, and JSON  and RDF certificates, with JSON gaining in appeal at present -- but syntax being arbitrary it is a modish phenomenon, tastes change with the seasons.

Henry

> 
> -- 
> Toby A Inkster
> <mailto:mail@tobyinkster.co.uk>
> <http://tobyinkster.co.uk>
> 

Social Web Architect
http://bblfish.net/

Received on Thursday, 27 October 2011 09:31:02 UTC