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Ask HN: Do journalists worldwide know they can build cryptographic identities?
In many (most?) countries, reporting without anonymity can get the reporter killed. But truly anonymous reporting is ineffective, because readers have no reason to believe a source with no history.
There is a middle way. Cryptography allows a reporter to sign statements proving they own the private key used to sign whatever they report, without disclosing anything else about themselves.
- dave4420 3y agoGiven that journalists already know they can use a pseudonym… how does this help?
- Jeff_Brown 3y agoIf I know your pseudonym, I can pretend to be you. For pseudonymous reporting to work therefore requires the reader to trust the publisher, who supposedly knows the author. But in many countries (e.g. Colombia, where I live) it's reasonable to anticipate someone using the threat of violence to extract a reporter's identity.