pear installer and signing

Hi,

during my PEAR talk someone asked about how things are looking in 
regards to signing. Especially with the upcoming channels it becomes 
less transparent where things are coming from, which makes it all the 
more important to maybe beefs things up here.
I remember that there was a sign command in PEAR since ages. Any news on 
this? Anything I should be reading?
regards,
Lukas