Re: computer-go: Authenticating the identity of a remote go-playing computer program

[Don Dailey <drd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

   From: Daniel Hallmark <dgh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

   > I know just enough about public-key encryption techniques and digital
   > signatures to believe that this is possible.  I hope that experts on this
   > list can shed some light on how it might work.  It would be ideal if a
   > standard could be established that eventually all go programs might adhere
   > to and thus allow more tournaments to be held on the net.


   The problem you have is that any security technology, including assymetric 
   encryption, only works if everyone uses it properly.  All it takes is for
   me to get my private key (from you) and hand it over to someone else and 
   that person can now "authenticate" to you that they are really me.  Same
   goes for keys registered to a computer program, etc.  Even assuming that
   the "program" wasn't just a front end that performed an authentication
   for a live player.

   A security protocol is much more than just a mathematical technique like 
   public key encryption - it involves some degree of trust that the users 
   not intentionally try to spoof the system.

   Daniel Hallmark


None   of this is   a problem  with md5  signatures   as some  kind of
authentication protocol for documenting  the existance of the program,
and using the  program  itself  (the moves it   actually plays)  as  a
one-way hash that proves authorship of moves (where the program is the
author.)

I know  of some chessplayers  who claim  they  can tell  which masters
played a given chess game based on the  style.  Even though humans are
not very deterministic compared  to humans, there  are still many bits
of "move authorship" information laying around if this is possible.

I play tennis, and I can recognize all the player I  know from a great
distance, just by watching them hit a ball (or just watching them take
a  step.)  The information  is there, and it's  like a fingerprint, no
two the same.


Don