The site is called MyID.is. It's currently in a public beta-testing phase, so anyone is welcome to join up and try it out.
It works like this: Users sign up for the site and pay a small fee that's charged to their credit card. In return, they'll get a bank-certified online ID badge that they can use to post on their blog, website or social-networking profile.
The confirmation process actually makes use of good, old-fashioned snail mail. After entering in a credit card number, users will receive a six-digit confirmation number in their physical mailbox, which they'll use to activate their account.
MyID's terms of service specifically allow for all kinds of websites to use it. Instead of outlining what kind of content may or may not be associated with MyID, the company instead opts to make all users responsible for the content on their own sites.
Tech analyst Robin Wauters called the new project "ambitious," while offering a note of caution.
"But the elephant in the room is of course the fact that [MyID] is facing the humongous issue of having to convince people to effectively trust them with their private data, credit card details and physical address included (which they explicitly promise never to sell, evidently)," she wrote for TechCrunch.com.
For more information, visit MyID.is.
