The problem I brought up in the grandparent post wasn't (meant to be) about a 1-to-1 mapping. It was about asking "who owns this key". Web of trust sounds nice

The problem I brought up in the grandparent post wasn't (meant to be) about a 1-to-1 mapping. It was about asking "who owns this key". Web of trust sounds nice, but it hasn't caught on. I would say because it has trouble going beyond one hop of trust if you actually consider adversaries. In person physical confirmation works, re-keying is a major hassle though. I do like the idea of a 'web of trust is good enough for declaring you are a person'. If you get a vouching system with a recursive revocation system, that might work well enough for establishing you are a person (though not well enough for establishing which person you are). Trusted third parties have problems. They centralize power, either in the state, or in some non-accountable organization.