One of the worries I had early on with OpenID as an authentication system was its decentralization, the key feature of the system. I still to this day, don’t understand how a system like OpenID could be considered secure enough to use as a membership system for various sites.
Recently, a post on ReadWriteWeb talked about how many different providers there are and how you can set up the OpenID authentication system on your own site.
I enjoy the idea of being able to log into numerous sites with one set of credentials, but what is to stop the OpenID system from becoming a great system for spammers to use to enter sites using it as an authentication system? What stops me from having an OpenID on every provider, or every domain I own?
It amazes me how many sites are using OpenID instead of the traditional username and password system we are used to.
The OpenID system is still in its infancy, but it is being picked up faster and faster by bigger companies and websites and other than its decentralization, which stops big companies like Microsoft from controlling your data, what is so great about OpenID?
I would love to know more about people’s reasons for supporting OpenID. So if you are a fan of it, please let me know in the comments below.
