[Cryptography] Blockchained/digitally signed *MAPS* ?

[Henry Baker]

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-----Original Message-----
From: John Levine <johnl at iecc.com>
Sent: Sep 8, 2026 1:02 AM
To: <cryptography at metzdowd.com>
Cc: <hbaker1 at pipeline.com>
Subject: Re: [Cryptography] Blockchained/digitally signed *MAPS* ?


It appears that Henry Baker  said:
>1. If a Great Lake can be renamed overnight, what other changes *that we don't know about* have already been made to Google
>and Apple maps ?  It might appear that such changes are *routine*, and the machinery was already in place to accede to
>government interference.


Changes to maps *are* routine. Cities and states build new roads, rebuild and
reroute them. They rename streets and squares and even bodies of water all the
time for entirely benign reasons like renaming something for a recently deceased
local worthy.  


States renumber highways more often than you might think, again for benign
reasons.  For example, a highway near me which has been NY 17 since the 1920s
is being piecewise renamed to I-86 as they upgrade it.  A highway in New
Jersey which was route 69 was renumbered to 31 because drunken students
kept stealing the signs.


I don't know any mechanical way to pick out the stupid ones from the normal ones.


R's,
John


Uhhh, crypto signatures ?


We have many of the same problems with other open source projects; parties who have become untrusted can no longer provide updates.  It becomes a little harder when the untrusted party is a government, but this is also not a new problem.


We have to start providing a crypto infrastructure that can provide levels of trust for mapping data.


You may recall that all the street signs in southern England were removed during WWII in order to frustrate a possible invasion.  You might also recall the episode in "Patton" when the street signs in northern France were spoofed (apparently a true story?).


In the modern digital world, these things seem quite quaint, but we're going to be in far worse shape if someone could actually control all digital maps.