Editing Trusted third party (section)

==Parallels outside cryptography==
Outside cryptography, the law in many places makes provision for trusted third parties upon whose claims one may rely. For instance, a [[notary public]] acts as a trusted third party for authenticating or acknowledging signatures on documents. A TTP's role in cryptography is much the same, at least in principle. A [[certificate authority]] partially fills such a notary function, attesting to the identity of a key's owner, but not to whether the party was mentally aware or was apparently free from duress (nor does the certificate authority attest to the date of the signature).