Unclear role and security of observers

[dglittle]

It is unclear what role the “observers” take in the ecosystem, and what this step is trying to prevent, and who the observers are supposed to be defending against.

Originally posted by @mspecter in #195

[dsernst]

See https://docs.siv.org/privacy/privacy-protectors

[dsernst]

Verifying Observers was a previous name for what we now call "Privacy Protectors".

Other previous names include "Trustees", "Keyholders", "Shufflers". Occasionally "Partial Decrypters", or even just "nodes". Been struggling with this one for a while.

[dsernst]

Also relevant: https://docs.siv.org/research-in-progress/privacy-protectors <--- sketches towards a "Privacy Protectors 2.0" design.

[arianabuilds]

Entry Summary for HACK SIV @ DEF CON 2024

Thanks again for participating! This submission earned $45.35 from SIV and $8.17 from the Public Vote, for a total of $53.52.

Here's what we noted in our evaluation:

What's interesting about this submission

• This is rightly pointing out a mismatch between the admin app UI and the docs.siv.org site
• We need to rename admin UI "Verifying Observers" -> "Privacy Protectors"

What takes away from it

• There are lots of docs pages for Privacy Protectors, just hard to find if, understandably, you're looking for Observers [the old name]

Issue to track getting paid: siv-org/hack.siv.org#11

[dsernst]

#249 updated the SIV admin interface to refer to "Privacy Protectors" instead of "Verifying Observers" — matching siv.org/protcol and docs.siv.org.

Also added a "Learn More" link from that admin page to https://docs.siv.org/privacy/privacy-protectors
(separate issue but that page currently could be reworked to be a lot more clear too).