Today, for the first time, you can get background information on almost any prospective counterparty by searching Google, Facebook etc. Or put more simply: we finally have an internet of people.
via An internet of people – Chris Dixon.
Totally! The essence of feeling comfortable giving money on Kickstartr or Airbnb is that you can research who you are dealing with in advance.
So it suggest a cool startup idea:
Create hyper-real people online. Provide SUPER detailed reality about people. Video clips in their profile, authenticate their work experience, have links to their financial or other accounts. –> With *these* people you might be comfortable lending large sums of money or investing or buying your house or sending your children to study. Lots of “Internet personalities” are hyper-real online. You really really know who they are. They are more than just a few cute profile paragraphs on Etsy or Airbnb. You trust those people without having met them. You would buy stock in their companies.
It’s like a TRUSTe badge for people on the web.