[WorldMaker]

OpenID, the original OpenID was built for bloggers: your blog address was your login. It mostly only ever verified that you were also (likely) a blogger and what that address was. It built a unique web of commenters who were also bloggers. It was something of a shining golden age of blog commenting when OpenID was just about everywhere.

OAuth and (shudder) "OpenID Connect" moved on to be nothing like that original OpenID and its vision. I think the death of the original OpenID is tied in part to the death of comment areas on blogs. It wasn't the only reason, but it was a factor in tide of them.

[anothersullivan]

That's really interesting. Finding the details of this was a bit hard, but I found this article (2007): https://blogger.googleblog.com/2007/12/openid-commenting.htm... Thanks for the bit of history