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!