Many governments have implemented this.
Ask HN: Why isn't there something like Let's Encrypt for document signing?
11–20 of 80 posts
Re: Ask HN: Why isn't there something like Let's Encrypt for document signing?
#12electronic document signing as a concept is covered by many software patents if you started your own product doing it you would get sued by DocuSign and friends, and they have lots of money for lawyers so quite hard to disrupt their monopoly
Ahah but you see that’s why I have founded BlocuSign in the Bahamas - far away from the reach of those pesky lawyers.
Re: Ask HN: Why isn't there something like Let's Encrypt for document signing?
#13electronic document signing as a concept is covered by many software patents if you started your own product doing it you would get sued by DocuSign and friends, and they have lots of money for lawyers so quite hard to disrupt their monopoly
but key-based cryptographic sigs have been around long before Docusign
Re: Ask HN: Why isn't there something like Let's Encrypt for document signing?
#14we have it in EU, IIRC eIDAS directive. Anyone in EU can digitally sign and verify documents
Wait, we do? Where is this? How do I use it?
Re: Ask HN: Why isn't there something like Let's Encrypt for document signing?
#15we have it in EU, IIRC eIDAS directive. Anyone in EU can digitally sign and verify documents
Indeed it's pretty easy to digitally sign electronic documents in my country. I do wonder though if it's also possible to digitally sign my own generated documents (pdf, docx, stuff like that).
Re: Ask HN: Why isn't there something like Let's Encrypt for document signing?
#16There are cheap s/mime CAs out there. It should be possible for LetsEncrypt to issue an s/mime cert for a domain, similar to TLS certs and verified in the same way, despite what top comments here are saying.
S/MIME being made for email, you can use port 80 ownership, or dns record ownership to verify control. And documents can be signed as originating from bob@acme.com.
I have implemented s/mime to sign documents automatically between companies. It is the best option that works by default. Powershell and openssl support it, as does outlook for email.
My guess is they don't see enough people asking for this, because those who need what you are asking don't mind paying cheap CA fees like $15/year or so.
Re: Ask HN: Why isn't there something like Let's Encrypt for document signing?
#17we have it in EU, IIRC eIDAS directive. Anyone in EU can digitally sign and verify documents
No free service I know of will let you generate a certificate on the fly with your name on it, which will be considered trusted by most out of the box sw
You can get free digital certificates to sign PDFs with your email address, from basically any company. But that is hardly a way to verify your identity. Anyone can create any email address they want, and use any name in the address.
The eIDAS directory lists some companies that are pretty cheap. But you will still have to verify your identity, so you can't get a certificate as easily as with Let's Encrypt for websites.
Edit : Docusign and similar services have a free plan, but you can only sign a few documents before you or the submitter have to pay. So it's not free per se, it just has a trial. And they don't really check your id, most of the time. So anyone can create an account with your name too.
Re: Ask HN: Why isn't there something like Let's Encrypt for document signing?
#18we have it in EU, IIRC eIDAS directive. Anyone in EU can digitally sign and verify documents
Indeed it's pretty easy to digitally sign electronic documents in my country. I do wonder though if it's also possible to digitally sign my own generated documents (pdf, docx, stuff like that).
https://www.dokobit.com/ integrates with identity systems in a few European countries, and produces digitally signed documents that are legally binding.
Re: Ask HN: Why isn't there something like Let's Encrypt for document signing?
#19SMIME certs for email are to my knowledge the most relevant analogy for a “web pki for users”. There is no ACME-over-email for SMIME that has made it out of rfc into practice, so that is the first hurdle. Hurdle #2 is there is only relatively weak agreement (AFAIK) on a “internet trust bundle for SMIME CAs”. Hurdle #3 is likely a lack of modern amenities like CT for SMIME CAs.
Re: Ask HN: Why isn't there something like Let's Encrypt for document signing?
#20electronic document signing as a concept is covered by many software patents if you started your own product doing it you would get sued by DocuSign and friends, and they have lots of money for lawyers so quite hard to disrupt their monopoly
How can something so fundamentally math-based as Public-key cryptography be so heavyliy patented?
Because math is useful?
Using math does not disqualify someone from obtaining a patent.