[Cryptography] Need a better name

[Natanael]

Den 13 nov 2016 08:25 skrev "Phillip Hallam-Baker" <phill at hallambaker.com>:
>
> ​We all know about using a digest to create a unique fingerprint for a
static file.:
>
> Fingerprint = Presentation ( SHA-2-512 ( fred.txt ) )
>
> I find it is useful to distinguish the presentation of the digest value
from the digest value itself and fingerprint is as good as anything for
that.
>
> But what if the file isn't static? Well the obvious approach is to use a
public key signature in some way. In the Mesh, I use this to authenticate
profiles as follows:
>
> 1) Each profile has a unique signature key.
>
> 2) The unique identifier of the profile is the fingerprint of the public
key
>
> There are some other features I might add in the future such as
checkpointing against a linked log but that is the basic concept.
>
> Problem is, what to call it?

The Mesh is essentially a per-user central database + a bunch of protocols
based on cryptography, right? There's an initial "entity declaration"
(database object?) containing sub-entries like basic profile data and the
public key, as well as Mesh specific policy rules.

Given the blockchain style checkpointing and one authoritive source of
events (each update must be signed by a trusted key), all entries are
protected from manipulation.

If it was Git we were talking about, we'd just be talking about file paths.
I don't know what terminology is used for transparency logs. In Factom
there's "proof-of-process" that can be applied to an individual document to
prove it isn't being forked when updated.

So, you want a name for the non-static entries belonging to some given
user's Mesh profile? And you want to produce some static identifier from
this...? (Your question isn't actually entirely clear)

I suggest something as simple as "Mesh entry" as the name, and "Mesh entry
ID" as the fingerprint equivalent, with the value derived from the initial
entry value + probably the hash of the initial "genesis block", or "Mesh
root", for that user (to guarantee it is unique).
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