Public/Private Keys Simulation Module

Electronic signatures are a settled part of Georgian practice, and most lawyers using them could not say what a signature proves or how the proof works. This module makes it concrete: generate a key pair, sign a message, verify it, then alter the message by one character and watch verification fail.

Why it matters for a lawyer

A signature does not prove that a person signed. It proves that whoever held a particular private key produced a signature over a particular message. Those are different claims, and the gap between them is where the practical questions live: what happens when a key is shared, delegated, stolen or held by an employer rather than the signatory.

Seeing verification fail on a one-character change makes the binding between key and content obvious. Seeing that anyone can verify without the private key makes the asymmetry obvious. Both are hard to convey in prose and immediate in practice.

Credit

This module is adapted for teaching from the open-source public/private key demonstration built by Anders Brownworth, used under the MIT licence.