Signatures in notes

[Lumin]

Have a friend deliver the note. If you don't have anyone you trust enough for something as simple as that...well, sounds like your business is going to run into much more serious obstacles than a forged note. (And very sensitive information should probably be delivered by hand anyway. If your messenger falls asleep and dies while carrying your plot to overthrow the government, a sure-fire way to tell the note is real won't help you any...)

I'm against any sort of automatic identification process (like notes being numbered)...sneaky stuff is already difficult enough when every character can see every single tiny thing you do. This whole issue sounds to me like something that should be dealt with by characters in-game.

[KVZ]

Isn't that what the seal is for?

Btw. Is anyone know how to use seal tool? It needs wax or seal wax? And how to make that one of that waxes, which resources and machines are needed? I think it is difficult process and those resources are not on every island...

[Talapus]

If you look in the Wiki, you will see that a "mixing bowl" is used to make seal wax. And I think you can melt wax in a fire pit or some such.

[KVZ]

But informations in Wiki about that are incomplete and confusing. Eg. there is Small Fire Pit, where is project "forming wax (1 day can prod. 80g wax; needed: 100g beeswax, 40g resin, 20g wood)", but no information about beeswax and resin and how to get it. And "Mixing Bowl - mixes seal wax
- In one day you can produce 60 grams of seal wax. You will need 80 grams of wax mixture & 40 grams of bitumen." But how to get wax mixture? I even asked Jos, but even he is not sure if it seal wax or wax is used for seal.

[Wilmer Bordonado]

I don't want to encrypt my notes. I just want to have an evidence that the note is from the correct char.

I think what PRUT's saying here is right. Signatures should be a must for notes. Nowadays notes don't give any security on who has written them.

How to send a letter to other location, to run up trade, when I can't trust if the note I have sent, reached correct person with no changes?
I have no choice but to walk myself and give the note myself.

If we want to promote trade, we should think about authentication of notes. Without notes (such as agreements, trade letters, offers or even stocks) there would be no advanced trade.

Yes, that's a good point. Signatures (or any other way of authentication a note could have) would bring several changes to Cantr by itself. Trading will be increased, there will be new jobs as couriers or postmen, trading or laboral agreements could be celebrated, a Court could be established in every city or town, laws and constitutions will have a real power everytime they will be written and published by town's leaders, etc.
And all those changes will come out only by implementing a way of authentification.

Let's see what happens in RL: Everyone has a signature. You need it to have an ID card, a driver's licence, a credit card. Do you need to rent a car or a house? Just write down your signature. Have you been hired for a new job? Please, sign in. Every agreement in RL carries a material expression of the will: the signature. It's unique and personal, although it could be falsified. But handwriting experts works on identify if a signature is falsified or not. At last, a signature can't be absolutely falsified.
More than that, we have fingerprints. Those can't be falsified at all.

How could be signatures work in Cantr? Every character will have a random serie of characters, such as "WmlR7", which will be assigned at creation. That "code" will never change during character life. When writing a note, the charrie will have the option of adding the "code" to the note as a footnote, which will be uneditable.
Charries won't know each others signatures at first time, but while interaction among them continues, they will know, and even they could have a personal list of partners' signatures.
Could it be falsified? Yes. Someone can make a note and select "no signature", but at the end of the note he writes down a signature. Experienced characters will know it's a fake because the signature is not at the "footnote", but inexperienced ones could be confused.

Another solution: "ink" could be implemented as a resource to be manufactured (with animal "blood"?) and so fingerprints could be inserted on notes ("You inserted your fingerprint WmlR7 on note.")

Wilmer B.

[Talapus]

Sealing wax is the solution, and signatures would make it effectively useless. Since Jos placed the needed resources on the older islands as well, I feel that this would be a detrimental change.