4 ms·

Implement some sort of secured cryptographic identity for members that is tied to a phone number and a personal presence at a given place and time (stop by any

by olefoo 18y ago

Implement some sort of secured cryptographic identity for members that is tied to a phone number and a personal presence at a given place and time (stop by any $foo to use our automated signup kiosk and receive your free picture ID membership card) this would vastly reduce opportunities for fraud.

mechanical_fish 18y ago
...this would vastly reduce opportunities for fraud. And vastly diminish your traffic, which in turn diminishes the universe of potential buyers, which probably results in lower sale prices for goods on your site relative to other sites. Particularly since even an "automated" signup kiosk will increase the cost of a transaction in a way that needs to be passed on in the form of higher fees. I do like the idea, though. There might be some application where it's worthwhile. One trick is to see if you can leverage some sort of existing "automated signup kiosk". If only you could, say, ask someone to authenticate by making a transaction at one of several specific local ATM machines, and then query the banks to make sure that transaction is made...
- olefoo 18y ago
  If it could be tied into the DMV/Post Office/National ID card that would be the best. As it is there are a number of retailers that implement something similar; Costco for instance has a memberID card that has a lowrez photo on the back. Joining an existing ID system to a PKCS used with the website would be relatively straightforward. Your point about it reducing the universe of available buyers is true up to a point the variable there is the value of the goods being traded. Confirmed trustworthy identities aren't important if you're selling relatively low value goods, but if you're buying and selling cars, houses or industrial goods it suddenly becomes much more attractive to reduce the pool of buyers to those to on whom some due diligence has already been performed. As always; risk carries a premium. The basic problem of course is that our current monetary system is not well suited to todays internet.
- carpo 18y ago
  Perhaps you could do something similar by having the person transfer a very small amount into the websites bank account - just a few cents, then link that transaction to their website user account --- you should be able to query banks on who owns the bank account if the owner of the web account does something dodgy.
andr 18y ago
You could achieve the same effect by mailing a confirmation number via snail-mail. This would not fix one of the fraud problems - the hijacking of valid accounts in good standing. It would only affect fraudsters psychologically, as the police would generally be unwilling to deal with crimes of less than $3000.

by olefoo 18y ago

mechanical_fish 18y ago

...this would vastly reduce opportunities for fraud. And vastly diminish your traffic, which in turn diminishes the universe of potential buyers, which probably results in lower sale prices for goods on your site relative to other sites. Particularly since even an "automated" signup kiosk will increase the cost of a transaction in a way that needs to be passed on in the form of higher fees. I do like the idea, though. There might be some application where it's worthwhile. One trick is to see if you can leverage some sort of existing "automated signup kiosk". If only you could, say, ask someone to authenticate by making a transaction at one of several specific local ATM machines, and then query the banks to make sure that transaction is made...

olefoo 18y ago
If it could be tied into the DMV/Post Office/National ID card that would be the best. As it is there are a number of retailers that implement something similar; Costco for instance has a memberID card that has a lowrez photo on the back. Joining an existing ID system to a PKCS used with the website would be relatively straightforward. Your point about it reducing the universe of available buyers is true up to a point the variable there is the value of the goods being traded. Confirmed trustworthy identities aren't important if you're selling relatively low value goods, but if you're buying and selling cars, houses or industrial goods it suddenly becomes much more attractive to reduce the pool of buyers to those to on whom some due diligence has already been performed. As always; risk carries a premium. The basic problem of course is that our current monetary system is not well suited to todays internet.
carpo 18y ago
Perhaps you could do something similar by having the person transfer a very small amount into the websites bank account - just a few cents, then link that transaction to their website user account --- you should be able to query banks on who owns the bank account if the owner of the web account does something dodgy.

andr 18y ago

You could achieve the same effect by mailing a confirmation number via snail-mail. This would not fix one of the fraud problems - the hijacking of valid accounts in good standing. It would only affect fraudsters psychologically, as the police would generally be unwilling to deal with crimes of less than $3000.