[Cryptography] Best internet crypto clock

Henry Baker hbaker1 at pipeline.com
Wed Oct 22 10:35:37 EDT 2014


I like this AC hum idea for a crypto clock, except that:

1.  It is highly local, so you need recordings from your local power provider to provide a time base.

2.  All of these recordings have to be done by multiple, independent parties, so that collusion among the parties can be ruled out.

Perhaps a better source would be something that couldn't possibly be hacked -- e.g., variations in solar flux of neutrinos or other solar variations.  There are lots of laboratories around the world recording solar phenomena, so perhaps some combination of these records could become a non-hackable clock.

At 02:48 PM 10/21/2014, Jonathan Thornburg wrote:
>On Oct 21, 2014, at 1:02 PM, Bear <bear at sonic.net> wrote:
>> IIRC a lot has been done to verify video and audio as having come 
>> from a certain moment in time or general location based on recovering
>> the precise 'drift' of the omnipresent 60-cycle (or 50-cycle if 
>> you're Australian) hum of the surrounding electrical system.
>[[...]]  While 
>> 
>> Relevant law enforcement and Intel agencies are, yes, known to monitor 
>> and record the variances specifically for purposes of dating recordings
>> that later may become evidence. 
>
>On Tue, Oct 21, 2014 at 02:40:33PM -0400, Jerry Leichter wrote:
>> That's a cool technique.  Do you have any references?
>
>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20629671
>describes the technique, and says that the UK police have recorded
>this since 2005.
>
>-- 
>-- Jonathan Thornburg <jthorn at astro.indiana.edu>
>   Dept of Astronomy & IUCSS, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA
>   "There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched
>    at any given moment.  How often, or on what system, the Thought Police
>    plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork.  It was even conceivable
>    that they watched everybody all the time."  -- George Orwell, "1984"



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