[Cryptography] Email encryption for the wider public

[Jonathan Thornburg]

On Wed, Sep 17, 2014 at 03:43:29PM +0200, Henry Augustus Chamberlain wrote:
> I propose that we use the local part of the email address to store the
> public key, so instead of HenryAugustusChamberlain at gmail.com, my email
> address would be (64 random letters)@gmail.com.

This breaks an E-mail use case that I often use fairly frequently:
I need to read someone my E-mail address over the phone.  (For example,
I've just completed some transaction by telephone, and I'd like the
business to E-mail me a receipt/confirmation/whatever.)  Getting the
spelling of $spouse's (8-letter, but "odd" to many people) E-mail correct
over a poor-quality phone connection is hard enough already!

ciao,

-- 
-- "Jonathan Thornburg [remove -animal to reply]" <jthorn at astro.indiana-zebra.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"