The Coin Congress team is stoked to announce that Tim Pastoor, CEO and co-founder of Identi.fi, the first decentralized identification and reputation database, has been confirmed for our San Francisco event. Pastoor will present his insights on transforming the Wild Wild Web into a Web of Trust, or WoT.

Identi.fi is currently in its alpha stage, but takes aim at virtual privacy and trust verification on the peer-to-peer network. The platform is a virtual address book application that stores its data on computers of its users. Adopters can connect their name, e-mail, phone number, bitcoin address, photo, and more into the same online identity and get verified by their social network or trusted parties.

Martti Malmi, founding father of both Bitcoin and Identifi, told Unbit:

Anyone can already post anything on the Internet and it can be impossible to get it removed. Identifi just aims to make it easier to decide what information you can trust and what can be automatically discarded. With Identifi, you at least have the chance to see what is being said about you, and to respond to incorrect information.

Identi.fi allows anyone to write, and digitally sign, the identity verifications. It can be the government, some other agency with strict procedures, or it can be your social network if you live in a country where it’s difficult to get an official verification. It’s up to users to decide whose verifications they trust.

One day in the future could you scan the face of the friendly bus driver with your Google glasses and give him a thumbs-up? Could Identifi empower trust-based routing of mesh networks, or even the routing of packets in a drone delivery network made up of individual drone operators? That’s the dream. 

He continued:

Identifi could be used in Bitcoin wallets to find a verified address for the person you want to send money to. Browsers could use Identifi as a name service to connect a name to an IP address or a social media profile. You could use Identifi for filtering of spam, telemarketers and forum trolls by hiding identities that are disconnected or downvoted by your trust network.

If you have a good credit rating, you could leave your wallet at home, then have merchants identify you by your face, to send you the bill later.

In an age of dwindling privacy, Identi.fi hopes to empower users to organically develop a web of trust. Pastoor will address this and more during his presentation, “Can the Wild Wild Web transform into a Web of Trust (WoT)?” in August.

You can try it out Identi.fi at their website, follow them on Twitter or Facebook. Tim is crowdfunding his plane ticket to San Francisco. You can donate through Bitcoin here.