14 DAY TRIAL // Mozilla is toiling away at BrowserID, its attempt at a decentralized identity and login system. It has now announced a major step forward, other entities can now be identity providers, helping a great deal with the "decentralized" part.
"Last week we pushed out a BrowserID feature that gets us closer to the decentralized identity system we envision for the Web. But more than that, it enables a truly awesome user experience—registration flows go from 8 screens to one simple sign-in," Mozilla explained.
The idea is simple, until now the only identity provider has been BrowserID.org, the site maintained by the foundation. This happened because the team was still working on laying the groundwork and creating the system.
But now, BrowserID is opening up and other identity providers, notably email services, can become part of the BrowserID ecosystem.
"Up to this point, Browser ID has been vouching for users’ email addresses on behalf of participating websites. Now email providers can directly vouch for their users, eliminating the need for an email confirmation step or a BrowserID password," Mozilla explained.
You can check out the video for a demonstration of how the system works. As long as you're logged into an email account that supports BrowserID, you can login into any site that also supports the system with only a couple of clicks and just one screen.
This is great for workflow and shouldn't affect privacy since the only data accessible is your email address. What's more, you are not automatically signed in so there's no danger of being logged into a site and tracked without you realizing it.
Email providers are welcomed to join BrowserID, Mozilla is already working with some of them. That said, it's going to be a while before BrowserID becomes a viable alternative.
