What is PeerTrust?

Peer-to-Peer Identity for the Sharing Economy

What is the !rst question you ask someone to know whether you can trust them?

«Who are you?»

Not "What have you done in the past?"

Not "How do you usually behave?".

«Who are you?»

Why is this question so important?

Because reputation is good to decrease the risk of bad behavior, but it can’t eliminate it

So what do you have if something bad DOES happen?

If you know who you are dealing with, you have a way to get back at them

Strong identity is the !rst insurance policy

Plus, identity creates accountability

So it also helps decreasing the risk of bad behavior

Identity is paramount to establishing trust

So how is identity integrated today?

Nicknames and avatars

Fine when transactions are online only.

But when I’m dealing with you o!ine, I want to know your real name.

Facebook & Co.

Don’t force people to use their real identity and have no way to enforce it.

Plus, most people share behaviors on Facebook that would make them look untrustworthy.

Paper documents

Paper document copies are easy to forge. You can even get a real document for the identity of someone else. And document veri#cation is very expensive and unscalable.

What is PeerTrust?

PeerTrust is an identity platform

Based on a digital identity document:

The Passport

PeerTrust Passport is distributed

All your identity information is stored inside your phone, encrypted so that only you can use it.

It never reaches our servers.

It is only exchanged when you want it, with whom you want.

PeerTrust Passport is peer-validated

Identity veri#cation is crowdsourced.

The more people «stamp» your passport, i.e. verify your identity, the stronger it gets.

Identity veri#cation requires physical presence.

PeerTrust Passport can be used safely online

A PeerTrust Connect API (oAuth) makes it possible to securely link your passport to your user account on collaborative consumption services.

Your identity information stays in your phone and is only exchanged directly with people who transact with you, if you decide to share it.

PeerTrust Passport is extensible

It can be used as the basis for your (aggregated) reputation pro#le.

And for plenty of applications that require strong identity: building access control, document signing, etc.

PeerTrust is as Peer-to-Peer as the services it is designed for

And PeerTrust is international!

PeerTrust is VeriSign for individuals

But can I trust a community as much as a centralized authority?

We don’t store your identity information...

But we do store your «stamps»!

So we know who veri#ed whose identity.

And we can detect fraudulent patterns.

And what happens when my phone gets lost or stolen?

It is stored in a secured area of your phone, encrypted when your phone is locked*

*provided you lock your phone with a PIN code, a password or TouchID

You can disable your passport instantly.

You can even back it up, and restore it later.

And your backup is only readable by you of course.

But what tells me the technology is safe?

It has been used and proven for more than 20 years!

In the security world, it is called...

Pretty Good Privacy (PGP)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretty_Good_Privacy

We «just» made it more user-friendly

Want to know more?

http://peertru.st