Re: Why did the PGP Web of Trust fail?

PGP WoT failed (in a sense of getting E2EE of emails to the masses),
because it is too hard to use. People, want to do stuff and go places.
Convenience trumps everything. Cost/Benefit equation for PGP is very
unbalanced. For a lot of people PGP cost is not, – just not worth the
benefit, but plainly insurmountable (learn about keys, certificates, key
signing - come on!) .

Bringing institutions into WoT, will not make it successful in a sense of
getting E2EE of emails to the masses. After all, the goal of WoT to bring
E2EE to the masses has been achieved via commercial interests - ProtonMail,
all mainstreams IM apps (WhatsApp, Viber, Telegram).

Bringing institutions into WoT, will make it successful in a sense that it
will allow people to cooperate (exchange money and ownership rights) with
more reliability. To do this it should not make the main PGP WoT mistake -
being too complex. That's why when designing Validbook's Endorsement Graph
I decided to make it undirected graph, only mutual relations counted (no
ambiguity in who knows who); no levels of trust (you either trust
identity's SURLHI claim or not). Validbook Statements are very simple,
real-world-like digital documents. Here is an example of a contract -
http://futurama1x.validbook.org/statements/templates/Wedding%20Photography%201-13.
You will be able attach to it your digital passport issued by goverment and
sign it together. In this way counterparty can be sure about your
legal/goverment identity (be able to go to a judge in a proper jurisdiction
and bring you to responsibility if needed). Most importantly, it is all
(Validbook Statements, building your Validbook Identity's SURLHI
Endorsement Graph) very human friendly. That's why Validbook slogan is -
"Do important stuff with confidence".

--Bohdan


On Thu, Jun 21, 2018 at 12:09 PM, Henry Story <henry.story@bblfish.net>
wrote:

> Thanks a lot! That is what I was looking for to help me write the article.
>
> I am reading the first with great interest. When done (if my main thesis
> still holds) I'll
> try to integrate the concepts into a revised clearer version of the
> article. :-)
>
> On 21 Jun 2018, at 00:56, Christopher Allen <ChristopherA@
> lifewithalacrity.com> wrote:
>
> I encourage you to read what the creators of PGP wrote for the first
> #RebootingWebOfTrust
>
> https://github.com/WebOfTrustInfo/rebooting-the-web-of-trust/blob/master/
> topics-and-advance-readings/PGP-Paradigm.pdf
>
> Lots of other useful documents in the various #RebootingWebOfTrust repos,
> both community created docs in /final and individual submissions at
> /topics-and-advance-readings
>
> https://github.com/WebOfTrustInfo/rebooting-the-web-of-trust/blob/master/
> topics-and-advance-readings/modern-pki-identity-assertions.md
>
> https://github.com/WebOfTrustInfo/rebooting-the-web-of-trust/blob/master/
> topics-and-advance-readings/FirstEncountersWithPGP.md
>
> https://github.com/WebOfTrustInfo/ID2020DesignWorkshop/blob/
> master/topics-and-advance-readings/PeerAttestationofIdentity.pdf
>
> — Christopher Allen [via iPhone]
>
>
>