[ANN] [IDCOIN]: A Bitcoin for Identity and Reputation Supporting a Web of Trust

[TheLittleDuke]

2014-11-12

http://bitcoinmagazine.com/17969/an-interview-with-little-duke-founder-and-developer-of-idcoins/

2014-10-17


The project met its initial minimum fundraising goal on StartJoin 17 days early!

* FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE *

This project has now been picked up by the Strength in Numbers Foundation, a registered Non-Profit in Minnesota, USA.

http://mblsportal.sos.state.mn.us/Business/SearchDetails?filingGuid=709acaa6-f929-e411-bfac-001ec94ffe7f

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


This is a StartJoin.com Project at the moment and I'm looking for feedback:

http://startjoin.com/idcoin

Website redirects to Github:  http://www.idcoins.org
Twitter @IDCoins http://twitter.com/IDCoins
Facebook http://facebook.com/IDCoins

IDCoin

Identity and Reputation Cryptocurrency Coinbase Supporting a Web of Trust

This is an exploratory concept Bitcoin-like system based in part on GPG/PGP with a Degrees of Separation Web of Trust as well as reputation based on txfee's to be paid to miners.

Gathering feedback right now at https://startjoin.com/IDCoin

A Coinbase for Identity and Reputation

IDCoin will be designed to be an 80/20 Proof of Stake / Proof of Work based blockchain that will establish both Identity as well as Reputation in a public ledger.

The generation and addition of a GPG/PGP key will suffice as the "proof of work" as well as the "key signing" of other members keys. The system will be designed to award coins based on addition of validated keys, the signing of additional keys to build out the Web of Trust.

We are essentially creating a single system of record for GPG & PGP keys.

Reputation will be leveraged through transactions, whereby Transaction Fee's will be used to "vote with your coins."

Feedback can easily be calibrated based on the identity of the individual leaving it -- we can work to make a "neutral" rating safe again as compared to the "grade inflation" we see in markets like Ebay where everyone is essentially shamed into providing only positive feedback.

You would be able to determine with a high degree of confidence WHO the identity of an individual (or autonomous computer system) is -- you could also see what kind of reputation they had. What do people think about them based on their transactional history. If you are a counter-party to a transaction you should have the right to express your sentiment without fear of censure. Think about every time you go through a drive-thru to get food or coffee. Is every experience really a five-star? With IDCoin you could simply acknowledge that you had an experience that was neither positive nor negative.

With IDCoin you could instantly determine if someone's +5 rating actually meant anything especially if they gave everyone +5. You could instantly baseline the feedback.

With a Web of Trust model you could choose to transact with people and business that are say only within 3 or 4 degree's of separation. In this way you could completely detect and ignore any asto-turfing.

IDcoin is different than http://identifi.org in that it will be based on PGP/GPG and will work to create plugins to support email clients. In this way you could generate coins just by sending an encrypted email.

IDcoin will also differentiate itself from Namecoin (NMC) though we would absolutely look at ways to potentially leverage it as well. The general problem with block-chain based approaches is the current need to have clients download and maintain their own copy. This should absolutely be an OPTION but not a hard REQUIREMENT -- we conceive of a model through the Web of Trust that you could elect to essentially ATTACH to any public node that has a sufficient level of TRUST associated with it based on your own own level of confidence within whatever degrees of separation you're willing to permit. In this way the system supports a variant of check-pointing.

In fact our current design allows you the ability to link a TXID from any other blockchain into the web-of-trust -- so if you spend Bitcoins with a vendor you can link that TXID AND your feedback into the chain.

In our IDCoin model Web of Trust, you could leverage Notary Publics who have been DEPUTIZED by institutions you find credible to perform key-signing services. For example, we conceive of a system that would support say Rotary International to use our system as a public ledger for their membership roster. In fact with our IDCoin ANYONE could obtain and demonstrate AFFINITY with any organization they so choose to. It can act as a TRANSCRIPT or a RESUME/CV -- your company could digitally acknowledge that you are an employee from some period of time. Your performance could be logged if you so choose to use it that way.

IDCoin could be used to take credit for ANY transaction in any other blockchain. Our current designs include the ability to insert FOREIGN_TX into the chain that would include CHAIN and TXID. From there you could find the ADDRESSES and AMOUNT. Of course you would have to take credit for an address first -- this OPT-IN method completely de-anonymizes the crypto-currency transaction which may be required in the future by some financial institutions.

[TheLittleDuke]

Most of the Identity and web-of-trust ideas come from the PGP/GPG world...

But what we're hoping to do is:

1. Incentivize people to create keys and use them!
2. Make the web-of-trust easier to navigate (and display!) using social-graph techniques
3. Make key-signing easier AND create an intersection with existing identity verification services such as Notary Publics (in the US for example)

[franky1]

try to research bitID. it already solves the identity issues.. using bitcoin.. not some new crapcoin.

basically
register to any web service and hand them a PUBLIC bitcoin address, which is locked in.

now to login later you simply sign a message the website gives you, using your bitcoin address. and hey presto:

1. unique 'password' every time
2. high entropy
3. proof of ownership

[TheLittleDuke]

try to research bitID. it already solves the identity issues.. using bitcoin.. not some new crapcoin.

basically
register to any web service and hand them a PUBLIC bitcoin address, which is locked in.

now to login later you simply sign a message the website gives you, using your bitcoin address. and hey presto:

1. unique 'password' every time
2. high entropy
3. proof of ownership

Thanks for the heads up!  We'll check it out.  I think you're missing the broader utility of PGP in terms of email identity and encryption.

And for what its worth Litecoin was once called a "Crapcoin" :-P

Just saying...your overall message loses its edge and effectiveness when you insult the idea ;-)

[cinder]

This thread should probably belong to the alt coin section.

In before moving.

[halicarton]

This thread  belong to the alt coin section,isn't it?

[TheLittleDuke]

This thread  belong to the alt coin section,isn't it?

It's really an ADJUNCT to Bitcoin -- could possibly be merge mined along with namecoin...

I was hoping for more actual feedback and dialogue and less "meta" around where the convo should happen.

Whatever works for the mods works for me.

-dvd

[robinf]

Sounds good

[Timoow]

One question: How will you make sure I can't create a botnet that just keeps mailing each other all the time, to then transfer all the coins they generate to me?

What I'm trying to show you here is that there's still a possibility of a Sybil attack on this system, which is like the byzantine generals' problem of decentralized identity and reputation. If you know how to solve this, I'll gladly give you some satoshis to develop it further.

"The Sybil attack in computer security is an attack wherein a reputation system is subverted by forging identities in peer-to-peer networks. It is named after the subject of the book Sybil, a case study of a woman diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder." *

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sybil_attack

[provenceday]

nice concept.

watch this.

[TheLittleDuke]

One question: How will you make sure I can't create a botnet that just keeps mailing each other all the time, to then transfer all the coins they generate to me?

What I'm trying to show you here is that there's still a possibility of a Sybil attack on this system, which is like the byzantine generals' problem of decentralized identity and reputation. If you know how to solve this, I'll gladly give you some satoshis to develop it further.

"The Sybil attack in computer security is an attack wherein a reputation system is subverted by forging identities in peer-to-peer networks. It is named after the subject of the book Sybil, a case study of a woman diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder." *

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sybil_attack

Yeah that is absolutely an issue that the system is attempting to thwart.  Creating and submitting PGP keys is a someone expensive process.  What we are currently exploring is having Autonomous System Provider "key-servers" that only accept a key into the chain AFTER the submitter has responded an encrypted email using that proposed key from that same email address.  By no means fool proof, but it can act as a CAPTCHA!

The only real "financial" incentive is in obtaining coins that can be used to spend on reputation -- and even if someone attempts to ASTROTURF bogus or even really vetted identities, it won't matter really.

Because if those identities are not in your web-of-trust, and if none of the key signers or feedback providers are either, its up to you whether you care to transact with them.

I'll give you an example from the real world:

We recently decided to replace our mattress and have been considering some variant of a memory-foam based design.   Somehow I became aware of "Amerisleep" and so naturally I did a search for reviews.  What I found was VERY suspicious:

http://www.amazon.com/Amerisleep-Liberty-Natural-Memory-Mattress/product-reviews/B006IUBDAC/ref=dpx_acr_txt?showViewpoints=1

Most of the reviews are clustered around early March 2014 -- and if you click on the reviewer you'll find that 80+ % of them have never reviewed any other product.  Seems really odd for such a high dollar item...looks and smells like astroturfing to me combined with the fact that all the reviews have good grammar, no typo's or misused words.  I'm suspicious of the cluster of positive feedback from a supposed intellectually savvy consumer base who were suddenly compelled to promote a product when in theory they have had OTHER satisfying transactions....

With IDCoin, if I can't even find say 7-degree's of separation away from a reviewer who has at least solid "neutral" feedback from at least 7 other identities also within 7 degrees of separation -- or at least a key signed by an organization that I respect, I might look for a competitive product or supplier.

The central idea here is that we want to provide CONTEXT so that people can make risk-based informed decisions.

Let's say a company has a run of problems and their feedback reflects it for a period of time.  Think about a car company doing a product recall due to a faulty part that leads to accidents.  IDCoin could reflect that DIP in reputation for whatever period of time and their eventual recovery if they cured.  And yes, you could absolutely plot that REPUTATION like a stock symbol.

Let's keep the conversation rolling!  What other issues or problems do you see?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[UPDATE] -- Looks like someone else had the same suspicions about the Amerisleep!  THIS review seems to be from a real person...

http://www.amazon.com/review/R1JXPJ7MSGBEE2/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt#R1JXPJ7MSGBEE2

[TheLittleDuke]

Key signing SHOULD be, generally speaking, a BI-DIRECTIONAL event.

What do I (or you) care if random bots or spammers sign my key?  I do not have to acknowledge the relationship unless I counter-sign their key.  The Web of Trust would easily expose a nexus of single-linked relationships or a self-contained loop.

[TheLittleDuke]

To keep SPAM out of the chain as well as minimize AFFINITY seeking agents our current thoughts on the design would use a two-phase commit system before accepting certain transactions into the blockchain.

For example, both parties to a transaction could digitally sign the TXID from their private keys (since the transaction is publicly disclosed and the public addresses are known) -- you could instantly confirm whether the transaction was mutually beneficial -- versus having someone try and spam by sending small amounts to a known identity (known as DUSTING) -- once the transaction was ACKNOWLEDGED then both parties would be free to provide REPUTATION tokens to that event without fear of censure.  This means that you could leave positive or negative or even neutral feedback without fear of reprise.  And since the feedback can be amended, it gives both parties an opportunity to CURE any dissatisfaction over time.

[TheLittleDuke]

The IDCoin blockchain would essentially be currency and transaction AGNOSTIC.

This means that individuals using something like KIVA.org could take credit for repaying their micro loans back!

What this means is that we could create an open/public ledger that could render credit reporting bureaus largely irrelevant.

Who's opinion would you trust?  A friend of a friend or some greedy for-profit corporation?

By leveraging some of the ideas implemented in Namecoin that feedback and reputation could be amended over time -- this means that you could essentially agree to show payment schedule performance until the loan was satisfied or discharged and then simply indicate an overall status after some period of time.

[TheLittleDuke]

Doing a simultaneous key signing party around the world is VERY possible if out of the TESTNET experience we get a solid base of vetted public keys that we can put into the genesis block.  We have been talking about ways to do that remotely.   There is a level above a Notary Public available in the US & Canada known as a “Medallion Stamp” available at financial institutions that is used as a stronger identity vetting mechanism.  Not that we would require it of course, just looking at ways of doing a higher level of vetting for accepting keys.

We think that by leveraging a membership structure in the Strength in Numbers Foundation we could offer an equivalent of a Digital Notary service whereby the foundation would accept keys at varying levels of trust and in turn could certify individuals that meet various levels of proof of identity status for a Digital Notary Public designation within our Web of Trust

[TheLittleDuke]

* FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE *

This project has now been picked up by the Strength in Numbers Foundation, a registered Non-Profit in Minnesota, USA.

http://mblsportal.sos.state.mn.us/Business/SearchDetails?filingGuid=709acaa6-f929-e411-bfac-001ec94ffe7f

[Ingramtg]

   why no people post their idea here

[TheLittleDuke]

  why no people post their idea here

We have been gathering feedback at StartJOIN to date as well as answering questions in the Skype "BITNATION" group.

We are working to make sure that this idea fully supports the goals of Bitnation!

http://www.bitnation.co

[freezingwinter]

when will this coin be launched?

[Hashbender]

Hmm....watching.
Also connected to bitnation. Saw this at facebook before, but no clue here in BTT