Aside from what others have mentioned, the wonder is actually that there's something like Let's Encrypt itself. It was a huge lift by the LE founders/engineers/benefactors to pull it off, and they had a larger mission to make the web more secure for end-users. Document signing has no such larger mission, so any players have to do it either for money or for the lulz, which won't get to LE benefit and scale.
Ask HN: Why isn't there something like Let's Encrypt for document signing?
71–80 of 80 posts
Re: Ask HN: Why isn't there something like Let's Encrypt for document signing?
#72https://keybase.io/ maybe?
Re: Ask HN: Why isn't there something like Let's Encrypt for document signing?
#73Document signing is NOT a technical problem. It's a legal acceptance problem - and everyone KNOWS docusign and friends and understands how they're admissible. Anything else would have to compete with that and people would be suspicious of it for a long time. The best way for something like LE for docusign to start would be via a government office of some sort.
And legal side is already solved in EU since 2014 with eIDAS regulation.
Estonia was one of the first to make digital signatures legaly binding with its ID-Card system.
Re: Ask HN: Why isn't there something like Let's Encrypt for document signing?
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
If the target is legal recognition then you need to store your legally-recognized name and need to do what patio11 calls a hybrid system - part-offline, part-online verification. Also, IIRC there's a free government CA in Estonia that can sign documents, but of course you need to trust that Estonia is both not malicious and not incompetent.
You can hack eIDs in several EU countries to sign documents. Definitely possible in Belgium.
Link, please!
Re: Ask HN: Why isn't there something like Let's Encrypt for document signing?
#75Aside from what others have mentioned, the wonder is actually that there's something like Let's Encrypt itself. It was a huge lift by the LE founders/engineers/benefactors to pull it off, and they had a larger mission to make the web more secure for end-users. Document signing has no such larger mission, so any players have to do it either for money or for the lulz, which won't get to LE benefit and scale.
The larger mission would be to reduce reliance on one player that has 70+ percent of the market and decentralize trust. Centralized trust is going out of style fast..
Re: Ask HN: Why isn't there something like Let's Encrypt for document signing?
#76Depending on the use case, OpenTimestamps may be relevant. They also have a long list of member organizations/companies that might provide a more relevant solution for you. https://opentimestamps.org/
Pretty neat, thanks
Re: Ask HN: Why isn't there something like Let's Encrypt for document signing?
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can hack eIDs in several EU countries to sign documents. Definitely possible in Belgium.
Link, please!
What link? eID certificates don't have the Signature attribute set to true, but one can still sign with these certificates, ignoring the attribute.
Re: Ask HN: Why isn't there something like Let's Encrypt for document signing?
#78[dead]
Re: Ask HN: Why isn't there something like Let's Encrypt for document signing?
#79Re: Ask HN: Why isn't there something like Let's Encrypt for document signing?
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
I had a document notarized and was amazed that the person only did the signature page. I could have easily swapped out the entire contract. I do not understand this. At least a digital signature let's you know what document was signed by a person you have no idea about. What we really need is a human notary that digitally signs a document that is scanned and printed with a QR sort of notarization on each page.
Signatures are also only on the signature page. This has always struck me as a fatal flaw, and yet in practice it seems to never be a problem. I don't know what to make of this. The easily-drawn conclusions (power of law, ambient human honesty) from these conflicting ideas feel inadequate.
I tried to get the guy to notarize all of the pages. He didn't want to and I gave up. So weird that this critical function is so obviously broken.