> So the identity here is the ridiculously long number formed from "Alice's public key for her receiving queue" combined with all that other stuff, isn't it? In

> So the identity here is the ridiculously long number formed from "Alice's public key for her receiving queue" combined with all that other stuff, isn't it? In other words, a user ID? If Alice's public key is an ephemeral key used only for a single connection -- as with e.g. HTTPS -- then it can't meaningfully be called a "user ID". Then it really is just a random number negotiated as part of making the connection and thrown away when the connection is terminated.