[Cryptography] Explaining PK to grandma

[Lodewijk andré de la porte]

2013/11/25 Ralf Senderek <crypto at senderek.ie>

> At that point granny will be crying out for something simpler, and we have
> to
> tell her that we cannot make it simpler.
>

I think the idea of a lockbox with one keyhole for locking it, and one for
opening it.

The one for closing it is the first half of the key for opening it. So it's
possible to make closing-keys from the opening key. (trying to make the
pubkey -> prikey process visual. It's not exactly accurate but it does
really work)

Now in the virtual world you can duplicate anything. So you can have as
many key-duplicates and box-duplicates as you would like. (implicit
explaination of copying isn't a bad thing.)

So it's a good idea to send everyone a duplicate of your close-key. That
way they can lock something for only you to read.

And if someone comes to your home and wants to be absolutely sure it's you,
they can ask you to use your openings key on one of your boxes! That way
whoever's name is on the keys and boxes can be made sure of.

And you should keep your close-key very safe, with it someone can pretend
to be you!

Anyway. The point is the analogy works in many cases.
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