[Cryptography] Business opportunities in crypto

[John-Mark Gurney]

Henry Baker wrote this message on Tue, Apr 13, 2021 at 11:11 -0700:
> Re: Privacy-preserving wifi/BT/wireless handshakes
> 
> I need to do a better job of explaining this one.
> 
> Suppose you have 2 devices that you want to connect so
> that they can talk to one another.
> 
> If you connect them via a cable, and the cable is
> reasonably well-shielded, then no one can listen in
> to the conversation between the two devices.
> 
> So now I want to connect two devices using a wireless
> connection -- e.g., wifi/Bluetooth/BLE/whatever. If
> I have complete control of both 'ends' and can set
> them up properly, then there should be a wireless
> protocol that reveals NOTHING about their connecting
> with each other, other than they are both transmitting
> from time to time on wireless channels.
> 
> Right now, one of them has to publicly advertise its
> SSID & MAC, which should not be necessary for a point-
> to-point wireless connection.
> 
> If a point2point connection can be made, then it should
> also be possible to create a multipoint connection which
> is completely private -- e.g., a private home network.

The issue is when it comes to location.  If the devices are always at
a single home, it's likely they are talking to each other.

For devices that roam, they would have to transmit at a constant rate
in order to hide when the see a peer and need to talk to that peer.
This constant tramission would significantly limit bandwidth, or any
comms would have to be at an extremely low bandwidth making it limited
to simple text messages.

The would also need to pick a regular time slot, and only transmit
during that period.  This, though, can help improve battery life as if
you already know your peer's time slot, you only need to listen during
that time, allowing a device to turn off the receiver at other times.

> At 08:53 AM 4/13/2021, Henry Baker wrote:
> >4. Privacy-preserving wifi/BT/wireless handshakes. While
> >a small amount of progress was made several years ago
> >on random MAC addresses during scanning, the 'real',
> >'(semi-) fixed' MAC address is still used. Isn't there
> >some sort of zero knowledge challenge/response protocol
> >that could be used instead -- e.g., your MAC address
> >becomes a sort of private PKE key which you can prove
> >you have, but the wifi hotspot never actually learns
> >the bits of your now-private MAC address.

-- 
  John-Mark Gurney				Voice: +1 415 225 5579

     "All that I will do, has been done, All that I have, has not."