Introducing bitcoinID and bitcoinID.com

[matt.collier]

Advantages of Bitcoin for Donations
Bitcoin is an excellent way for individuals or organizations to accept donations simply by advertising their bitcoin address in an email, forum post, or on a web site. The donor can use that bitcoin address to send an anonymous contribution. The advantages of using bitcoin for donations rather than other online payment methods such as PayPal or credit cards are the same as using bitcoin for other purposes:

• worldwide access (no currency exchange needed)
• low cost (no--or very low--transaction fees)
• anonymity

Anonymous Transactions: a Double-edged Sword
Transactions involving bitcoin are inherently anonymous. That's because using bitcoin is comparable to using cash when buying or selling goods and services. Buyers must supply only their anonymous bitcoin address, and sellers must provide only enough information about themselves to assure proper delivery of the good or service. Donors may prefer to be anonymous; but they want to be very sure their money goes where they intend. How can a potential donor be certain that the bitcoin address being advertised in an online forum actually belongs to the author, musician or non-profit they wish to donate to?

A bitcoinID Provides Assurance
The ownership of a bitcoin address can be verified by means of a bitcoinID. Potential donors can view the bitcoinID Card of an individual or organization on bitcoinID.com. If the bitcoin address being advertised matches the bitcoin address displayed on the bitcoinID Card and the security level for the bitcoinID satisfies the donor, the donation can be sent to the bitcoin address with confidence that it will be delivered to the intended recipient.

More information available at: http://bitcoinid.com

I look forward to hearing your questions and comments.

Matt

[ryepdx]

Hmm... looks like you're barking up a similar tree as the proposed Bitcoin Karma project. You're working on the same problem, at any rate. Any plans to integrate OTC ratings, or some other kind of rating system?

Looks nice though. I like it so far. :-)

[Nefario]

Hmm... looks like you're barking up a similar tree as the proposed Bitcoin Karma project. You're working on the same problem, at any rate. Any plans to integrate OTC ratings, or some other kind of rating system?

Looks nice though. I like it so far. :-)

You've got a hardon for OTC-WOT, every new service notice has a post from you asking about WOT integration.

[matt.collier]

bitcoinID is complimentary to OTC and bitcoinKarma.  bitcoinID is all about establishing the physical identity of an individual or organization.

Answering the questions:

What is this person's real name?
What website or organization are they associated with?
Where are they located?
How can someone communicate with this person securely and reliably?

Once this information is established, a foundation has been set for reputation based systems like OTC and bitcoinKarma.

I want to point out that just because someone chooses to associate one or more bitcoin addresses with their bitcoinID it does not mean that they forfeit the benefit of anonymity.  Since a person may have an unlimited number of bitcoin addresses, they can simply use different addresses when they prefer to transact anonymously.

Matt

[ryepdx]

You've got a hardon for OTC-WOT, every new service notice has a post from you asking about WOT integration.

Eh. I like that it's a good, well-established, working solution that lends itself nicely to being worked into just about any ratings service as a backend. Unless someone's got a better system, I'd like to see it used more widely. While the anonymity of bitcoins is nice, I think one of the hurdles to widespread adoption is the lack of a common trust system. The average consumer still gets a bit of nagging worry in the back of their mind when they buy things online, sight unseen, from an untrusted source.

Edit:

bitcoinID is complimentary to OTC and bitcoinKarma.  bitcoinID is all about establishing the physical identity of an individual or organization.

+1. I respect the hell out of that. I guess I just assumed your next step would be trying to integrate a rating system. Kudos for having a focus and sticking with it. :-)

[ChaosFox]

Hmm, interesting. I'll give it a try sometime, if I decide to establish a more serious business of any sort using BTC. As for now, I'll be using a more pseudonymous approach and hope that my OTC-WOT ratings and bitcoinKarma will help to tell others I could be reliable. This would be the next step of sorts, forgoing any anonymity and setting in stone your identity, if a greater degree of trust is required. All in all, I like this.

[khal]

This looks like what i launch some months ago, welcome in the "club" :p

Adding verified OTC users was on my todo list, and it's now done : http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3791.msg97754#msg97754

[alkor]

Are you planning to integrated this with OpenID? Can I tie a bitcoin address to my open id (alkor.myopenid.com)?

[matt.collier]

Are you planning to integrated this with OpenID? Can I tie a bitcoin address to my open id (alkor.myopenid.com)?

Can you tell how you would like to see this implemented?

[alkor]

Can you tell how you would like to see this implemented?

I am not familiar with the technology behind OpenID - I know that it is an open protocol used to identify people on websites instead of forcing them to remember usernames/passwords.

So maybe one way to implement it would be to allow people to log into your site with their OpenID, and register their bitcoin address with that particular ID.

[matt.collier]

bitcoinID is based entirely on S/MIME certificates issued by trusted 3rd party Certificate Authorities.  In fact, the bitcoinID number is a SHA224 hash or "fingerprint" of the user's public key.  That is to say that a bitcoinID number is not proprietary.  Anyone who possesses your public S/MIME certificate can derive your bitcoinID.  This bitcoinID can then be used to determined your preferred bitcoin address.

OpenID does not provide us a way to confirm your physical identity.  Since a password required for a user to access their control panel, future integration with OpenID may be useful.  However, before you may change the bitcoin account(s) associated with your bitcoinID, you will have to complete a challenge/response process takes place through encrypted email.

We just completed defining our security levels, perhaps this will give you a better understanding of what bitcoinID is about.

http://bitcoinid.com/?signup=1

Matt

[ryepdx]

Yeah, turning bitcoinID into an OpenID provider might not be a bad idea. It could supplement the JSON-RPC API I hope you're planning on building on top of it...  

[matt.collier]

Yeah, turning bitcoinID into an OpenID provider might not be a bad idea. It could supplement the JSON-RPC API I hope you're planning on building on top of it...  

Did I hear someone say API?

If you have a bitcoinID and you want to determine the bitcoin address:
http://api.bitcoinid.com/?json=1&bi=<bitcoinID>
http://api.bitcoinid.com/?json=1&bi=1ed3a924f920e54d535a1391fb1f65400940f7fa1c0b1d4bc483322f

You will get in return:

{"address":"1N411e13NCCF4wJS912q3Pw7ct66Z1oSF3","securityLevel":"1","match":1}

If you have a bitcoin address, and would like to find an associated bitcoinID:
http://api.bitcoinid.com/?json=1&ba=<bitcoin address>
http://api.bitcoinid.com/?json=1&ba=1N411e13NCCF4wJS912q3Pw7ct66Z1oSF3

{"bitcoinid":"1ed3a924f920e54d535a1391fb1f65400940f7fa1c0b1d4bc483322f","securityLevel":"1","match":1}

[ryepdx]

Awesome! I'll have to see about getting that integrated with Bitcoin Pouch.

[matt.collier]

If you use Gmail, either with a gmail.com address or in conjuction with your own domain name, and you've been reluctant to use S/MIME because you don't want to use an email client like Thunderbird, Outlook or Mac Mail, then you need to know about Penango.

Penango is an add-on for Firefox which add's S/MIME capability to Gmail!

S/MIME certificate has been installed into Firefox and you've installed the FREE add-in, you will be able to send/receive digitally signed and encryped messages using your S/MIME certificate.  There is no setup required.   The Penango add-on automatically locates your S/MIME certificate.  The best part is, your private key stays where it belongs, on your own computer.

http://www.penango.com/index.html

Options for Internet Explorer and Zimbra Mail users are also available.

[matt.collier]

New Feature

Change the bitcoin address linked to your bitcoinID
Users can now securely change the bitcoin address linked to their bitcoinID.  In order to do this, users must first log into their control panel using their email address and password.  The user must then make a request for a validation code.  A validation code will be sent by bitcoinID.com to the user in an S/MIME encrypted email.  After the user has entered the validation code into their control panel, they will be able to update their bitcoin address.  BitcoinID.com will maintain a record of all bitcoin addresses that have ever been associated with a bitcoinID.

This new feature allows bitcoinID users to quickly and easily change their bitcoin address in the event that their bitcoin wallet is lost or if they want to start utilizing an online eWallet.  Unlike those who advertise their actual bitcoin address, bitcoinID users will not need to change their ads.  Changing ads could be a tedious process if the user has ads posted on many different media outlets, and impossible in the case of print ads.

Coming Soon

Campaigns

Users will be able to create campaigns for use with their bitcoinID.  A campaign can be used to track donations received from donors responding to an ad posted on a specific media outlet (e.g. forum, email newsletter, website).  A user may create a campaign for every media outlet they use to post their bitcoinID.  Each campaign will be linked to a different bitcoin address.  Each campaign will have a unique bitcoinID.com URL associated with it.  When the user receives a donation to a particular bitcoin address, they will know with some certainty which ad prompted the donation.

[Nefario]

What frameworks are you using here?

[matt.collier]

Hello Nefario,

I assume your asking about the web platform?  It's PHP/mysql and Smarty.

[Nefario]

I like the fingerprint

[nereer]

I like the fingerprint

I'm gonna go with AlexZ on this one. The perception a fingerprint sends is of police investigations, crime etc - in general the act of tracking, hunting someone. If it were to be a lock or shield symbol or something like that it would give off the perception of protecting the user, which is a much more positive approach.