

Ask HN: Thoughts on anonymous identity provider idea - macca321

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.<p>Basically, if there existed an open id provider site which:<p>- 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<p>- 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.<p>This would allow you do do things like establish trust (like on airbnb), block spammers but allow anon comments, etc.<p>- would you use such a service as a user?<p>- would you use such a service as an auth mechanism for your site?<p>- how would you get traction for this idea?<p>- how would you build a business around this?<p>- have any other thoughts?<p>cheers!
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umaeclipse
I suspect that Joe Public will care as much about this as they do about their
Facebook privacy.

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macca321
Well you start with the paranoid early adopters, don't you?

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crpatino
May paranoid early adopters be already conditioned to use free-as-in-beer
services?

