Patent ID: 8006295

Claim:
A domain identification system comprising at least one processor, the system comprising: a principal from a plurality of principals; an identifier generation component that generates, with the at least one processor, a mnemonically meaningless persistent identifier and assigns the mnemonically meaningless persistent identifier to the principal, wherein the principal is a member of a neighborhood comprising the plurality of principals; a binding component that binds the mnemonically meaningless persistent identifier to a public key by a binding, the public key is used to authenticate the principal in a networked environment; and a sharing component that shares the mnemonically meaningless persistent identifier and the binding with at least one another principal from the plurality of principals, wherein: the principal is configured to receive an authentication request and query the plurality of principals in the neighborhood to determine whether at least one principal from the plurality of principals is familiar with a binding that can authenticate a source of the authentication request, and the principal is further configured to, when the principal is a member of at least one other neighborhood and when it is determined that none of the plurality of principals in the neighborhood is familiar with the binding that can authenticate the source of the authentication request, forward the authentication request to at least one other principal in the at least one other neighborhood.