Trusted Third Party

A Trusted Third Party (TTP, engl. "Trusted Third Party"), is a third instance, the trust two parties. Only by a third trusted party can solve many problems that arise when the desire for secure transmission of digital data.

TTPs gather evidence about transactions, keep these and make them accessible in case of need. In this way, disputes prejudice (in the sense of the previously made agreements ) are settled. There are several uses for the TTP principle, such as key management and identity certification, as time stamping server, evidence custodians, data trustee, with an agent and "executing forming " Organ.

Of course, the use of TTPs assumes that these are extremely well protected against unauthorized access from outside and that their signature keys are kept hidden.