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Private keys and addresses are not the same thing. In the current model, if you get my social security number, checking account number, or credit card number,
by blhack 7y ago
Private keys and addresses are not the same thing.
In the current model, if you get my social security number, checking account number, or credit card number, you have it. I have to trust you not to use it for something bad.
At least in BTC, if you have my public key, it doesn’t matter. You can’t do anything with it.
But in the current system, we are expected to give away this sensitive information all the time. In the BTC model, you (practically) NEVER share you private key with anybody.
The BTC equivalent would be giving your private key to everybody who you have even any sort of relationship with, and just hoping they don’t do anything you don’t want them to. It’s absolutely insane how we treat this stuff right now.
- harryh 7y agoYes, public/private key authentication would be great when it comes to this sort of thing. But that really has very little to do with the blockchain. It would be quite possible for the government or a consortium of banks to implement improve authorization schemes that have all of the upsides of public/private keys and none of the downsides of the blockchain.
- blhack 7y agoHow can you see that this has little to do with the blockchain? This is like a basic application of that technology. Yes of course the government could implement the same thing, but many people already have.