[Cryptography] What if Responsible Encryption Back-Doors Were Possible?

[John Levine]

In article <CAOLP8p4nxJjdvgwFitG_4BZBCuV9wDZeke4PBxy=qavrkFD-mQ at mail.gmail.com> you write:
>1) It is possible, but _hard_ and _expensive_ to build it securely.

A lot of well known cryptographers disagree with you.  Assertions
without models and examples are unpersuasive.  Keep in mind that the
most important security issues are social, not technical.  Any escrow
system will have some way to accept requests from courts or cops or
whoever and either grant them and provide access or not.  The security
depends on the least honest, least competent, most venal, most
corrupt, and most confused people involved in that process.

>I wont go into tech details, but if Bitcoin can protect billions in online
>value, there are systems that can unlock back-doors without too many
>failures to make the system a bad idea.

Wow, that must be the non-sequitur of the month.

I have heard estimates that as much as 20% of all of the bitcoins ever
mined are gone permanently because people have lost the wallet keys.
Perhaps I'm suffering from a failure of imagination but I cannot see
what that could have to do with key escrow or key recovery.

R's,
John