Re: [Acme] Supporting off-line (manual) validation

[Phillip Hallam-Baker <[e-mail]>]

As a general rule, any protocol that contains a component that may be
subject to variation in the field needs an IANA registry. Since we are
going to have multiple automatic validation processes we will be required
to have a registry even if there is only one entry at first.

For the offline part, I don't think that the border between automatic and
offline is quite as clear as some folk seem to think. Some validation
mechanisms are intrinsically offline we have a proposal for a completely
automatic one but virtually all the processes in use today are a mix of the
two.

Even EV issue can be automated if you have an already validate credential
and a DV issue can return 'pending' for a host of reasons. And even if you
are doing EV you have to pass domain validation as well.

So I don't think this is a taxonomy thing. It is a 'label the process so
the automatic bits can be identified' thing and a 'this may not work
automatically' thing. So no to offline/xxxx but yes to a registry of
validation schemes.