Patent ID: 6957199

Claim:
A method for conducting authenticated business transactions involving communications using microprocessor equipped devices to communicate over a distributed network, the method being carried out by an on-line authentication service available on the distributed network, comprising the acts of: a) enrolling a multiplicity of users with a closed authentication infrastructure, wherein enrolling comprises obtaining and verifying the identity and other credentials of the multiplicity of users and providing each user with a unique secret necessary for later authentication to said on-line authentication service and storing the verified identity and other credentials in at least one database; b) authenticating a plurality of the multiplicity of users to said on-line authentication service using each user's unique secret to produce a plurality of authenticated users; c) enabling a plurality of groups each group comprising at least two of said plurality of authenticated users to conduct interactions comprising a plurality of messages under persistent mediation of said on-line authentication service, such that each of the plurality of messages passes through said on-line authentication service and is directly monitored by said on-line authentication service; d) wherein persistent mediation of an interaction further comprises the acts of directly compiling an audit trail of an interaction and making the audit trail available to the at least two users in the interaction in an intelligible form at any time during the interaction at the option of the at least two users, and wherein the audit trail comprises at least some of the content of the plurality of messages in the interaction; and e) further comprising the act of providing a discovery portal available to authenticated users through the on-line authentication service such that users can search for other users based on their verified and dynamically variable credentials, whereby users may conduct authenticated interactions with each other without having a prior relationship.