Slashdot Mirror
Digital Identities Now Available
Largecranium writes, "I-names, the only globally unique, resolvable namespace in parallel to the DNS system and compatible with OpenID, are being introduced during Digital ID World in Santa Clara. I-Names are only as useful as the services they enable; the services that are available today are interesting but not life-changing. The ones that are coming in the next 6-12 months could change the way people interact online. I-names and their value (today and tomorrow) are casually explained at iwantmynamenow.com." I-names are the lineal descendant of the technology that began as
XNS and continues evolving today as XDI.
Digital Identities Now Available
Excellent! Because, you know, regular identity theft was just becoming boring.
Push Button, Receive Bacon
Let's reduce this project to something simpler and more easily understood than the gibberish in the writeup.
Pay $5 to use the internet.
or
Passport.NET for money.
Either way you slice it, it's unnecessary and dumb when the alternative is free and already exists. What is the alternative? Your email address and password. On top of that, you can get virtually any email address you'd like from any number of free online webmail sites like GMale and Hotmail.
What's the point?
And for those who didn't get the subject line: Yet Another Twenty Bucks For A Record In A Database Scam
10 ?"Hello World" life was simple then
Why does this remind me of new.net's custom TLD registrations, that only worked if you used them as a root nameserver? (or had spyware that added that). Same thing here apparently, you register and get an "i-Name" that only works for providers that offer authentication based on it.
Ive always prefered the warm feeling of my analog identity, just like i prefer the sounds of vinyl and tubes.
The Wikipedia article on i-names says this: "One problem XRIs are designed to solve is persistent addressing -- how to maintain an address that does not need to change no matter how often the contact data for a person or organization changes."
Uhhh... I don't want persistent addressing. I like the idea that if I really wanted to, I could change my e-mail accounts or shut down my web site I have several e-mail accounts for use with different kinds of contacts: some for shopping, some for friends, some for business. I don't mix them. I don't want to mix them.
This also sounds like what Social Security Numbers have become in the U.S.: a catch-all identification number that you are asked for by every bank, employer, insurance company, hospital, car dealership, etc. I don't want to give them all my SSN. It's private, meant for government/tax purposes, but now everyone claims they need it. If I-names become popular, will something similar happen with them? (not trying to sound alarmist, just thinking out loud)
$nice = $webHosting + $domainNames + $sslCerts
...we were wondering what happened to the surviving middlemen from the B-Ark.
What's that you say? They work for "i-names" now?
"Internet sanitizers" you say? Well.... we're so delighted their safely with you.
(And not us!)
As it says a little later in the discussion, it's another twenty bucks to register yourself in someone's database.
Supposedly it gives you a permanent internet identity that could be useful for ID and shipping purposes.
See the article in Wikipedia, it has a good explanation and lots of useful links.
They've been trying to get a successful launch of this for some time now and it has so far failed miserably. I'd say it's because many folks on the internet like being anonymous or hiding behind a nym.
In times of trouble, the smell of frying onions usually gives confidence and comfort.
Could somebody explain wtf this is . . .
.reveal what a privacy nightmare it's going to be?
They want your money.
. .
Big. Really big. Huuuuuge.
KFG
This doesn't go as far toward an actual unique and secure identity as an x.509 certificate, isn't as flexible at handling people who have the same name, has no track record for trust or security, and is controlled by a single organization.
This looks to me like someone's way to make money fast on the interweb by having a signup race for cool names at $5 (then $20) per year each.
We know how well regulated, fair, and efficient the DNS system has been.
The problem with quotes on the internet, is that nobody bothers to check their veracity. -- Abraham Lincoln
It sounds like a single-sign-on system like Microsoft Passport (only w/o Microsoft). I didn't see any discussion of authentication. Microsoft used a central Microsoft controlled database. Companies were reluctant to allow Microsoft to be an intermediary between them and their customers. (And were more reluctant to pay another Microsoft tax). Consumers were wary of a central database of ID's controlled by Microsoft. I saw no discussion of how authentication is supposed to work with this system, or more importantly who maintains the database(s) of credentials. For that matter, I saw no discussion of verification - I register 'George.Smith' and associate it with some contact meta-data. Do they verify any of that? Can I register 'George.W.Bush' or 'Bill.Gates'? So far the site seems mostly to tout the low price. Great, it's cheap. What do I get? And why would I want it?
[Insert pithy quote here]