[messaging] Social Security cards and additional issues

[Watson Ladd]

Take your social security card: notice that the number is broken up
into unequal blocks.
The same is true for telephone numbers.
I don't think this is coincidence: has human interaction research been
conducted on
making strings easily identifiable? Credit to Robert Ransom for
noticing this in the
first place.

The second point concerns the need for fingerprints in the first
place. We're looking at a future that is increasingly multi-device.
Transparently managing shared contacts including cryptographic
identities from prior encounters obviates the need for fingerprints.
However, it does raise all sorts of tracking questions/how to access
this shared contact file from a new device?

Thirdly, UX remains a huge issue. Cryptocat got this right, and a
desktop Java application is probably the best current solution
(although Java is no longer as ubiquitous as it once was). Pond is
having issues making a cross-system GUI. Unless we can get people to
use our solutions, they don't matter.

Sincerely,

-- 
"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little
Temporary Safety deserve neither  Liberty nor Safety."
-- Benjamin Franklin