Key expiration question

[Chris Horrocks]

Hi,

I have a question around key expiry that I can't seem to find any thorough documentation on; & the @Gnupg twitter account pointed me here.

What purpose does key expiration have?

At first I thought it may be a mechanism for revalidating private key ownership but key expiration doesnt appear to impact on trust or validity. So I thought it may be a mechanism for time constraining key use but there doesnt appear to be anything in the RFC to mandate the handling (or not as the case may/should be) of expired keys.

Have I completely misunderstood?

Regards

Chris
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