[Cryptography] Happy birthday, Ralph Merkle!

[Bill Frantz]

On 2/2/17 at 11:34 AM, dave at horsfall.org (Dave Horsfall) wrote:

>Ralph Merkle, co-inventor of public key crypto, was born today in 1952.

Yes. Happy birthday. He has also made significant contributions 
in theoretical nanotechnology. (If you can't build it today, 
then it is theoretical.)


>Do you buy things online, with your credit card?  Then you can 
>thank Ralph Merkle for making it reasonably safe; he also 
>invented crypto hashing.
>
>(Notice that I said "reasonably" safe; it's always a risk.)

Note that buying in person with a credit card has its risks. I 
had my card number "borrowed" in Heathrow once for buy a bottle 
of scotch. Carrying cash or gold to make purchases also has 
risks. You just can't avoid those pesky things.

Cheers - Bill

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