Ask HN: Thoughts on anonymous identity provider idea

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3479753
by macca321 • 15 years ago
9 3 15 years ago

One of the big problems with online anonymous identity is that you have no way of evaluating trustworthiness of an anonymous person. I have this idea for a service which can solve this.

Basically, if there existed an open id provider site which:

- allows you to generate an anonymous identity with a single click for each online service when they ask you to authorize, or use an existing one

- has an API allowing sites using this authorisation mechanism to discover certain data about you without compromising your identity, e.g. has a valid facebook identity, has verified a phone number/credit card, is actually a software engineer looking for a job etc.

This would allow you do do things like establish trust (like on airbnb), block spammers but allow anon comments, etc.

- would you use such a service as a user?

- would you use such a service as an auth mechanism for your site?

- how would you get traction for this idea?

- how would you build a business around this?

- have any other thoughts?

cheers!

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