PhD project ideas

[Andrew Gallagher]

On 09/06/18 13:51, Dashamir Hoxha wrote:
> If user information is removed from the keys, then keyservers become
> almost useless, as far as I am concerned.

They become useless for the purposes of searching by user ID. But the
association of a user ID to a given key is only the first step in the
process. Once that is done, all sorts of other things happen in the
background based on fingerprints, and which the ordinary user will
rarely see because they are automated.

For example, keyservers are vital for propagating revocations. If my key
is stolen, and I revoke it, the best place to publish that revocation is
on the keyservers. They are the most widely supported directory and it
is not only possible but recommended that PGP clients refresh their
keyrings from the keyservers on a schedule. Removing user IDs would not
affect this process.

-- 
Andrew Gallagher

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