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ceejayozyesterday at 11:22 AM2 repliesview on HN

Public keys are a thing in computing, though?

Google Maps has one, even. And Stripe.


Replies

abustamamyesterday at 1:45 PM

It's been a while since I've used stripe but don't their keys start with sk_ for secret and pk_ for public?

I like that. Easy to tell if you should keep the key a secret or not.

show 1 reply
ZiiSyesterday at 3:03 PM

I would like to restrict the term "Public keys" to refer to asymmetric encryption keys which can be made public without compromising security.

The only purpose of the keys Maps/Stripe encourage you to publicly put into your website is to guarantee it is talking to _your_ Google/Stripe account not someone else's. Obviously once you put them in your client they are of zero value in helping Google/Stripe identify you. The fact that Google allows you to use the same type of key they also use elsewhere to identify _you_ not _them_ was always incredibly bad design. Google already have the 'Project ID' which would have been the best thing to use.