This has been discussed before, about 9 months ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6123720 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6123720 And this page w

This has been discussed before, about 9 months ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6123720 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6123720 And this page was largely written in 2007, although it's been updated a few times since. I'll also note that Val's "Compare by hash considered harmful" is not a conclusion which is widely shared. One can also worry about two people randomly (assuming quality random number generators) choosing the same RSA public key. Or we can worry about all of the oxygen molecules in the room simultaneously randomly deciding to concentrate into a corner of the room such that you die of asphyxiation. Sure, these things are _possible_; but whether you should therefore say that "life on earth is clearly broken because we are only probablistically correct and not provably correct" might be considered by some to be a somewhat insane conclusion.