Comment by jaza | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jaza | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

This is a great first step towards better online signing of contracts. I agree with what the FAQ says: "I've always thought that the fake cursive signatures that most electronic signature platforms make you use when e-signing a contract are silly". Quite true. Drawing a cursive signature online is like dancing a waltz in a nightclub. Signing via a simple action like a click / tap / keystroke should be fine.

But I'd expect a tool like this to have mathematically verifiable signatures, for example by using GPG keys, or perhaps by using blockchain. Ideally, the signatures would also be calculated based on a hash of the body of the contract. That would be a real game-changer, it would allow you to prove that a given party signed a given exact version of a contract. Magistrate doesn't appear to have anything like that right now, the signature is literally just the text "/s/ Jane Smith". Unless I'm missing something?

You're exactly right. The signature reflecting some sort of hash of the fully executed document is on the roadmap. There are some nuances around what exactly is fed into the hash. And, there are lots of other great ideas in these comments and outside of them that would make this product better.

I'm going to spend some time reflecting on all of these comments and being deliberate about about what to develop next. Then I'll build it quickly. If you want to know when something comes up, submit your email for updates.

I won't spam you. You'll get emails from me personally and only when there's something interesting to tell you.

IMO the problem is that you need a mainstream way to store the keys that even your grandmother could use. Mainstream can’t be expected to manage their GPG keys and create, append and verify signatures manually.

Though maybe in the move to the password less future with WebAuthn integrated into operating systems this may become possible.

I mean, we already literally have verifiable content signing. This is main purpose of GPG isn't it? Why have a line where we pretend someone used a digital pen at all? Just attach the signature?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com