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Schneier On Self-Enforcing Protocols

Posted by timothy on from the visibility-rocks dept.

Hollow Being writes "In an essay posted to Threatpost, Bruce Schneier makes the argument that self-enforcing protocols are better suited to security and problem-solving. From the article: 'Self-enforcing protocols are safer than other types because participants don't gain an advantage from cheating. Modern voting systems are rife with the potential for cheating, but an open show of hands in a room — one that everyone in the room can count for himself — is self-enforcing. On the other hand, there's no secret ballot, late voters are potentially subjected to coercion, and it doesn't scale well to large elections. But there are mathematical election protocols that have self-enforcing properties, and some cryptographers have suggested their use in elections.'"

8 of 207 comments (clear)

  1. First Post by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    I have a self enforcing first posting protocol.

    1. Re:First Post by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      First but no goatse. Less shocking than a distasteful photo.

  2. Schneier is a DOPER by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    That third way, known by kids, pot smokers, and everyone else who needs to divide something up quickly and fairly, is called cut-and-choose.

    ok, you just outed yourself as a pothead, and no way in hell I'm taking advice from a pothead. How many braincells have you killed with that shit?

    My son had a friend at school that jumped off the roof because he thought he could fly - he'd been doing pot.

    1. Re:Schneier is a DOPER by FieroEtnl · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      So your inference is that smoking pot leads one to thinking they can fly and acting on that thought. If that were true, we would have a lot more dead people in the world. Hell, Amsterdam would be a ghost town.

    2. Re:Schneier is a DOPER by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      Back in my day, we didn't have schools that jumped off roofs. We had to carry the school up 11 flights of stairs on our back, then push it off the roof ourself.

    3. Re:Schneier is a DOPER by Knuckles · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Actually, there recently were a few cases like that in Amsterdam, only with mushrooms instead of pot. Now, the 'shrooms are no longer legal.

      And mushrooms != pot. Very much so. Also, note the sibling reply.

      --
      "When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns
    4. Re:Schneier is a DOPER by al0ha · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      Haha - you know nothing except for a conservative and negative knee-jerk reaction to marijuana use. But I bet you would have participated in the underground bars during prohibition. Alcohol is so much safer than weed; NOT.
      Some of the smartest people in the world partake in the herb and I'd venture to guess Schneier on wacky-terbacky would still more intelligent than 98% of /. readers!

      --
      Did you ever wake up in the morning, with a Zombie Woof behind your eyes? -- FZ
    5. Re:Schneier is a DOPER by Mister+Whirly · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      And I know someone who died that wasn't on pot, so according to your logic if I spoke pot I won't die. Brilliant, and you can't even blame being high for your own stupidity!

      --
      "But this one goes to 11!"