Steve, You made a good observation. However, it does not nullify the assertion that if the appropriate parameters of trusting the source, and genuineness of the dollar can be verified, then we shouldn't have a problem. So if theft of the dollar is a concern, then add a verifiable "stollen/not stollen" paramater. Regards, Alex. Stephen Kent wrote: > At 11:03 AM -0500 6/18/02, Alex Audu wrote: > >Ed, > > > >You made some interesting points which leads me to wonder if > >we can define Trust in such a way that its parameters are verifiable, > >then we can verify that it is transitive. In other words, if Jon gets > >a dollar from Mike, and Jon can verify the parameters of the dollar, > >then Jon doesn't care about the "trustworthyness" of Mike's source. > >Or should he? > > > >Regards, > >Alex. > > I didn't want to comment on this example, but your message forces me to do so. > > Jon verifies the dollar, which is a bearer credential, and not Mike, > the person from whom he received the dollar. (The dollar could have > been stolen by Mike!) This example says nothing about transitivity of > trust. > > Steve