[Cryptography] Escrowing keys

[Phillip Hallam-Baker]

On Sat, Apr 29, 2017 at 9:08 PM, Dave Horsfall <dave at horsfall.org> wrote:

> On Sat, 29 Apr 2017, Salz, Rich via cryptography wrote:
>
> > > But no hardware can really be trusted beyond a ten year service life.
> >
> > The average age of US cars on the road is 11.4 years. Major appliances
> > (furnace, 16-20), refrigerator (14-17), hot water heater (12-14).
> > Elevators, 20 years.
>
> My CRT TV set is easily 15+ years old; why replace it?  The server I am
> using right now is a Compaq Evo, likely 15 years old and going strong
> (the disk was made on 4th Oct 2002, with no errors).  Its attached printer
> is an Epson DP-100; they came with the CP/M Microbee, which was popular in
> Australia in the 80s (the 'Bee still works too, as does its amber-screen
> monitor).  The LCD monitor for said ancient server was manufactured in Sep
> 2005; I bought it from the Salvation Army for $10.  monster CRT monitor
> that it replaced (and I still have it as a spare) was made in Sep 2002.
>
> My MacBook says it's a late 2009 model, so is a mere youngster (the only
> replacement was a battery - used, of course).
>
> What was the OP saying again?
>

​The fact that a device might last longer than ten years is irrelevant.

My two daily driver cars are a couple of Jaguar convertibles built in 1999.
They are surprisingly reliable, they give less trouble than the GTi we
traded in after five years because it was always breaking down.

The objective here is to pro​vide a mechanism that is capable of giving
people as close to 100% certainty that they will be able to recover their
private keys in the case of a personal catastrophe. However great your CRT
telly is, I am pretty sure you won't be running into your burning home to
rescue it.

And no, my target audience is not limited to only being people who are
satisfied with or too mean to replace technology that has long been made
obsolete. The Mesh is for people who saw the genius in the first generation
iPhone, it is for people who are unsatisfied with second best.
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