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this post was submitted on 11 Feb 2024
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The average Joe won't know what any of what you just said means. Hell, the Joe in the OP doesn't know what any of you just said means. There's no way (IMO) of simultaneously creating a cryptographic assurance and having it be accessible to the layman.
There is, but only if you can implement a layer of abstraction and get them to trust that layer of abstraction.
Few laymen understand why Bitcoin is secure. They just trust that their wallet software works and because they were told by smarter people that it is secure.
Few laymen understand why TLS is secure. They just trust that their browser tells them it is secure.
Few laymen understand why biometric authentication on their phone apps is secure. They just trust that their device tells them it is secure.
Each of those perfectly illustrates the problem with adding in a layer of abstraction though:
Bitcoin is a perfect example of the problem. Since almost nobody understands how it works, they keep their coins in an exchange instead of a wallet and have completely defeated the point of cryptocurrency in the first place by reintroducing blind trust into the system.
Similarly, the TLS ecosystem is problematic. Because even though it is theoretically supposed to verify the identity of the other party, most people aren't savvy enough to check the name on the cert and instead just trust that if their browser doesn't warn them, they must be okay. Blind trust one again is introduced alongside the necessary abstraction layers needed to make cryptography palatable to the masses.
Lastly, people have put so much trust in the face scanning biometrics to wake their phone that they don't realize they may have given their face to a facial recognition company who will use it to help bring about the cyberpunk dystopia that we are all moving toward.