Proposal:Adding Trust by Signatures

Adding Trust by Signatures
Proposal status:	Abandoned (inactive)
Proposed by:	Look4book
Tagging:	"database key - *, highway, oneway"="database value - *, true, trunk"
Applies to:	"database type - , , , "
Definition:	This proposal is in an early brainstorming phase. It will deal with a way of securing points which have trusted properties/coordinates against future modification.
Statistics:
Rendered as:	"how should it be rendered - hidden, free text or picture"
Draft started:	2013-01-27
RFC start:	"date of the Request For Comments -mail sent to the talk-list"
Vote start:	"when voting can be started"
Vote end:	"when voting is finished"

Proposal

A cryptographic signature shall be added to points that do not need to / should not be moved in the future. An authority who provided the points shall provide a signature over the coordinates considered correct.

Rationale

Currently several entries representing trigonometric points have attributes repeating their coordinates plus a note reading "please dont move this point". While the repeated coordinates may help find accidentally movements, it is currently not possible to find a change that includes both the position and coordinate pair. There are situations where a level of trust could increase the acceptance of OSM data. Navigation on the sea and aviation are such scenarios. A feature like this could encourage professionals in opening their data to the OSM base and using them. Imagine looking for fire hydrants and being sure the data has not been tampered with.

Examples

Landmarks on the shore, Positions of Firehouses, Trignonometric points all have fixed positions that should be well known, and must be trustworthy. By checking the given signature against the public key of the provider of coordinates any modifications become visible.

Tagging

signature - containing a cryptographic signature covering at least the coordinates and allowing for identification of issuer

signature:keys - list of keys that are secured by the signature

signature:issuer - a hint where to find the public key to check against

Applies to

nodes, ways relations. Most interesting after import from a trusted source, e.g. a list of approved trigonometric points from an official source.

Rendering

not currently a part of this proposal. Could become interesting for checking process.

Features/Pages affected

man_made:survey_point - could fix what has been fixed for centuries :-)

man_made:lighthouse

seamark:type=*

Comments

your're welcome

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