Can the token authentication be handled by some distributed processing network or must it be centralized? Are there any concerns for bottlenecks during peak times?
As explained above, the Clickshare Authentication Service is very distributed (offered by a set of machines, not a single machine). The Service can be scaled by adding more authentication server machines, by making each machine more powerful, and by judicious placement of the servers around the internet (to limit the number of hops between Web Server and Authentication Server). Each Web Server has a set of machines that it can contact for service. It is certainly true that the Clickshare Service “imposes” a third party into the transaction scheme. And, of course, when thinking from a “vulnerability” viewpoint, adding anything between the two parties of a transaction creates weak points (if, say, the mid-point goes down). However, the weakness is also the strength – imposing a neutral third party on the process provides for third-party verification. We think this is crucial for widely adopted transaction services. Its an engineering problem to design the service in such as way that it i
