Bitcoin as your web identity

[Anonymous]

I was reading Dave Winer's scripting news today and it hit me - the bitcoin block chain is a way to accomplish authentication outside of twitter,facebook and corporate silos who harvest your data and sell it to the highest bidder.

I wish there were a web service that had a simple XML and/or JSON interface that made it easy for a user to establish a username and password.

Such a service, if it had reasonable terms of service, could clean up among developers who want to invest in a net outside of Twitter, Facebook and Apple.
Why doesn't Amazon have a simple authentication service? This person says he or she is bullmancuso. Great, is this his password? Yes or no. That's all we need.

How about Visa or Mastercard. A bank?

I suspect we don't have it because of the confusion about OAuth. Shame cause it's desperately needed.

http://scripting.com/stories/2011/03/03/thinIdentityTheMissingWebS.html#p5269

Anyone up to the challenge ?


P.S.  Is this something like bitdns ?

[chaord]

P.S.  Is this something like bitdns ?

I have been having similar thoughts lately.  I think this is a huge hole that bitcoin could elegantly fill.  However, it is somewhat like bitdns that it would likely not be supported by the mainstream bitcoin client out of the box.

[genjix]

its called OpenID

Supported by Google, Facebook, Yahoo, ...

[Anonymous]

its called OpenID

Supported by Google, Facebook, Yahoo, ...

Open Id is far from simple. 

[ribuck]

Open Id is far from simple. 

I doubt you'll be able to design anything much simpler than OpenId. Most of the complexity of OpenId is hidden behind library calls anyway.

And OpenId provides a seamless path towards decentralization. The masses can start by using their Google- or Facebook-issued OpenId, then later can set up their own independent OpenId.

[Anonymous]

Open Id is far from simple. 

I doubt you'll be able to design anything much simpler than OpenId. Most of the complexity of OpenId is hidden behind library calls anyway.

And OpenId provides a seamless path towards decentralization. The masses can start by using their Google- or Facebook-issued OpenId, then later can set up their own independent OpenId.

The main issue is remembering exactly which open id you used to sign up with .

We use it on witcoin.com after all

Also we use a bitcoin login. Send a coin and it creates an account after confirmation then sends a coin back to you.

[genjix]

its called OpenID

Supported by Google, Facebook, Yahoo, ...

Open Id is far from simple. 

OpenID is a piece of piss to integrate into a website. Not too hard to use either.

[Anonymous]

its called OpenID

Supported by Google, Facebook, Yahoo, ...

Open Id is far from simple. 

OpenID is a piece of piss to integrate into a website. Not too hard to use either.

Thats if you can remember which provider you used or if they change the way they support it on a whim. What if you used google and they decided to cut you off....

http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/50138/is-openid-really-that-bad

Im probably more concerned about the actions of companies who hold the user data than the idea of open id.

If youve ever tried to login at a site and you forgot which account your login is attached too its a nightmare.

[error]

You should be putting OpenID on your OWN web site, which neatly resolves those problems.

[TiagoTiago]

I don't like the idea of having a centralized login, not very secure, "they" only need to crack one password to take over  your whole online identity; while if you got separated accounts in different sites, even if one is compromised most of your online identity remains intact, if you say you are you but your account in site X has been compromised using more of your known accounts than the attacker has compromised chances are people will believe you.