The Digital Imprimatur

Surfing on reddit.com today, I came across an essay by John Walker that fairly well describes what happened to my Internet era optimism.  It was written almost five years ago now, most of which time I've been beavering away inside the stripey-fruit company trying in my own small way to keep the dystopia Mr. Walker describes from coming to pass.

In any case, the key lesson of the mass introduction of NAT is that it demonstrates, in a real world test, that the vast majority of Internet users do not notice and do not care that their access to the full range of Internet services and ability to act as a peer of any other Internet site have been restricted. Those who assert that the introduction of the following technologies will result in a mass revolt among Internet users bear the burden of proof to show why those technologies, no more intrusive on the typical user's Internet experience than NATted broadband, will incite them to oppose their deployment.

Bugs will be found in early implementations, and they will be exploited. They will be fixed, and new exploits will be found, and they in turn will be fixed. The process will converge until the number of Internet users able to circumvent the accountability of the new architecture is so minuscule as to be insignificant. By that time, legislation is likely to provide an additional deterrent to those tempted to hide or forge their identity, just as sanctions exist for the use of false credentials in other venues. The ability to revoke certificates for programs found insecure, forcing the installed base to upgrade, will provide the means to correct vulnerabilities as they are discovered, regardless of how widely deployed.