Sebastian wrote/schrieb/scripsit:
A quick (and very non-scientific) thought: Do you have trust in the issuer of your CC?Do you trust a shop that has "Your major CC accepted" posted on the door?Do you trust someone that can't provide the means to verify that trust, with or without the sign?Do you, as an average tourist, even know how you could check it? I would think that the answer lies in one of those questions..
The key difference between a CA and a CC company is that the latter takes part in the actual business transaction between the parties. The customer does not have to trust the CC company to certify the shop because he can demand the CC issuer to do a chargeback with almost no questions asked.
The CC system also works in a way that is safe as long as customers apply common sense, which they are expected to do. It still needs to be figured out how to make common sense work for public key crypto on the other hand.
-Stefan -- junior guru SP666-RIPE JID:stefanp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx SMP@IRC