[Web-bot-auth] Re: WebBotAuth Direction

[Farzaneh Badiei <[e-mail]>]

I agree with this.
The path should address the needs of actors and operators and generally end
users on the Internet as a whole while keeping the Internet and the web
open and privacy preserved. If the anonymously attested bot system doesn’t
meet the needs of some actors we can see what can be done about that. To do
this in parallel we are basing our work on a presumption that “identity” is
the only answer to  the concerns that cannot be addressed with the
attestation system. It can be one answer. Maybe there are some other ways.
Also I think separating the two could lead to legitimization of one
approach and delegitimization of the other.

On Wed, May 13, 2026 at 11:24 PM Eric Rescorla <[e-mail]> wrote:

> If we're choosing between these two, I think the answer is #1, but I
> actually don't think this is quite the right question at this stage.
>
> Our job here is to try to design a technology (or technologies) which
> address the consensus use cases while also avoiding negative
> consequences. I think it's clear that deployment of the identity-based
> design will have some negative side effects, so if the anonymous
> design is viable, then we shouldn't be prioritizing an identity-based
> version just because it's more expedient.
>
> -Ekr
>
> On Tue, May 12, 2026 at 2:33 PM Rifaat Shekh-Yusef <
> [e-mail]> wrote:
>
>> All,
>>
>> Based on the discussion during the interim and later on the mailing list,
>> it sounds like there is significant enthusiasm for the anonymous approach,
>> but still interest in the bot identity approach.
>>
>> So, we would like to get the WG opinion on the following directions:
>> 1. Work on the approaches in sequence, starting with the anonymous
>> approach, followed by the bot identity approach.
>> 2. Work on both, anonymous and bot identity approaches, in parallel.
>>
>> Please, reply to this email on the mailing and indicate which option you
>> prefer.
>>
>> Regards,
>>  Rifaat & David
>>
>>
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