The school / Lesson 02 of 03
What a digital signature proves
A public check
A digital signature lets software check whether a message was signed using the private key associated with a public key. It also helps detect changes to the signed message. The check concerns a key and a message, not a person’s intentions.
Control is not identity
A valid signature does not, on its own, prove the legal name of the person using the key. It also does not tell you whether that person understood the message. A website can describe an action inaccurately even when the signature check works exactly as designed.
Read the whole request
For this lesson, there is nothing to connect or sign. In news coverage, notice whether an article is discussing the signature method, the software showing a request, or the identity of an operator. These are separate questions, and evidence for one should not stand in for another.
Why code verification appears in the news
The WEBCAT brief explains a project that checks whether a website’s resources match a published manifest. That concerns the page delivered to a browser. It illustrates why checking a connection, checking code and checking a signed message have different jobs.
Check your understanding
Does a valid signature establish a person’s legal identity?
Read the answer
Not by itself. It verifies a relationship between a message and a key. Connecting that key to a legal identity requires other evidence.
Further reading: Ethereum documentation.
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