Coming Soon: Pseudonymous Identity Verification for the Internet

I’m excited to announce my new project, InternetKYC. The purpose of InternetKYC is two-fold:

1. Allow consumers to control access to their personal information. All information should be encrypted client-side wherever possible. Whenever a third-party requests information, the user should be able to explicitly choose which identifying information to share. The user should be able to manage many different identities and selectively reveal which identities are shared with which third-parties.
2. Businesses should be able to get identifying information about users without having to ask the user to go through an identity verification yet again. Businesses should be able to request information such as “the user has a verified email address” or “the user has a verified government ID”, without necessarily knowing with that email address or real name are.

How it Works for Consumers

For consumers, InternetKYC is like any other app. You sign up, and then you can choose to verify information, such as email, phone number, domain name, and government ID. The user has a master private key which is used to encrypt all data client-side. Whenever information needs to be shared with or stored on the server, explicit permission is asked from the user, and the user can accept or deny the permission.

The purpose of InternetKYC is to eliminate the need to have to verify your identity over and over again. It is annoying to have to go through identity verification processes such as captchas or scanning government IDs when you have already done this many times before. There should be a way to store your identifying information in a way that is secure (primarily, encrypted client-side) and selectively share it with third-parties.

The user should always be in control over their own data and should be able to revoke access to any third-party at any time.

How it Works for Businesses

Businesses should not have to ask their user to go through an identity verification process, such as email, phone, or government ID, if the user has already done this before. Businesses should be able to access an API with InternetKYC to verify information about the user, always with explicit permission from the user.

The top uses-cases for businesses are:

• Knowing whether the user has a verified email address.
• Knowing whether the user has a verified phone number.
• Knowing whether the user has a verified domain name.
• Knowing whether the user has a verified government ID.
• Knowing whether the user has a verified social media account.
• Knowing the verified email address of the user.
• Knowing the verified phone number of the user.
• Knowing the verified domain name of the user.
• Knowing the verified government ID of the user.
• Knowing the verified social media account of the user.

Each piece of data requires explicit permission from the user.

The Business Model is to Charge the User

Unlike almost every other identity service on the internet, InternetKYC will charge the user instead of third-party businesses. The reason for this is to align the incentives of the user and the business. The user should be in control of their own data, and the user should be the one to decide when and how to share their data. The user should be able to revoke access to any third-party at any time.

By paying for the service directly, the user knows precisely what they are paying for, and does not have to worry about mal-aligned businesses interests selling their personal data for profit.

Coming Soon: The MVP of InternetKYC

InternetKYC is under active development. The first verification feature will be email addresses, followed by government ID. The first third-party apps that use InternetKYC will be my own apps, such as EarthBucks, Compucha, and NinjaButton, with more apps coming with time. The reason why I’m building InternetKYC now is that I want to start adding identity verification to my apps, and I want to do it in a way that is secure and respects the privacy of the user.