In Nordic mythology, trolls are big, dumb, ugly brutes who live under bridges and occasionally emerge to eat the unwary. Sadly, the modern-day namesake is not just a legend, but an obnoxious and hateful reminder of the worst of human instincts when the light of day isn’t properly shone on someone’s identity.
Trolls rely on fake accounts, fake names, fake EVERYTHING to maintain their precious anonymity — and have made the majority of social media and news articles a toxic commentary wasteland fit only for Mad Max and Furiosa.
Trolls have become a hated and apparently unavoidable part of life on the Internet — but there is a better way beyond just forcing everyone to disclose their true identity. Many people, such as journalists and whistleblowers, rely on anonymity to do their jobs or civic duty — the key is how to find a happy and seemingly oxymoronic medium where anonymity can be preserved while at the same time enabling someone’s true identity to be known when needed.
The good news is that it IS possible — Authenteq.com has technology endorsed by legendary investor Tim Draper (he liked it so much he made a sizable investment) that makes it possible to achieve these seemingly impossible disparate goals.
Authenteq is an automatic identity verification and privacy platform which enables users to verify their identity and create their own sovereign digital IDs which are stored encrypted in a blockchain.
The advantage of Authenteq is that they are STILL anonymous, but their identity is verified. Once they are banned, they won’t be able to open up a new account under a new name or identity. In fact, they won’t be able to open multiple fake accounts either, a key problem on Twitter.
Any personal user information is user-owned and user-controlled, and not accessible by anyone — including us. With an Authenteq ID, users can choose to verify their identity, or parts of their identity to third parties using our claims verification API. We support both KYC (Know Your Customer) implementations and identity claim verifications.
The initial signup process takes under 90 seconds and is 100% automated, unless they already have an Authenteq ID in which case it takes under 3 seconds to verify their identity, without them needing to use a password. Authenteq benefits almost any type of online service, whether it’s an online marketplace, social media, online betting, adult websites or a financial service. Best of all, integration is fast and simple with either APIs or by using our plugin.
Already in use with financial services and other regulated businesses, we have great hope that services such as Disqus will choose to adopt the Authenteq approach, as it will validate their mission to allow comments without the hate or the spam.
All ID verification is done automatically using our proprietary technology by comparing the user’s government-issued ID and a realtime picture with AI driven face recognition technology to make sure that your users are really and truly who they say they are.
Authenteq can automatically detect if a user that is signing up is really a live human being or a fraudster trying to fake his way through the verification process — this is what our blend of artificial intelligence and viking black magic is great at solving.
Through the power of the blockchain, we don’t save any data on the user, meaning there is no threat of a database breach that can leave your users with a huge headache and you potentially open to litigation.
Users own and control their own data — Authenteq works worldwide and can verify over 1 billion users in under 90 seconds. THAT is true scalability!
How can Authenteq rid the world of the scourge of trolls? By taking away their only advantage; anonymity — the previously impossible task of finding out who they actually are. The best way to send a cockroach away is to shine a light on it and Authenteq brings the light of a thousand suns onto their real identity. They won’t reveal their identity to the service provider, and it is their right not to do so — but with their real identity tied to their account ,they will be more accountable for their online actions.
In closing, Authenteq can solve the world’s troll problem once and for all — while maintaining the principles of anonymity and free speech that are at the core of the Web today.
