Comment by lostcolony

3 years ago

Not really. For the same reason that "here's your github login" doesn't equate to you suddenly being able to be effective in a new company. You might be able to look things up in the code and understand how things are being done, but you don't know -why- things are being done that way.

A lot of the instances in the post even show the NSA giving a why. It's not a particular convincing why, but it was enough to sow doubt. The reason to make all discussions public is so that there isn't an after the fact "wait, why is that obviously odd choice being done?" but instead a before the fact "I think we should make a change". The burden of evidence is different for that. A "I think we should reduce the key length for performance" is a much harder sell when the spec already prescribes a longer key length, than an after the fact "the spec's key length seems too short" "Nah, it's good enough, and we need it that way for performance". The status quo always has inertia.

Thanks for the response, that's making sense. I've also tried following the PQC Google Groups but a lot of the language is beyond my grasp.

Also... I don't understand why I've been downvoted for asking a question, I'm trying to learn but HN can certainly be unwelcoming to the 'curious' (which is why I thought we are here)