Addressing False Identity Attacks in Action-Based P2P Social Networks with an Open Census

P2P social networks defined by user actions (e.g., P2P discussion forums) are expected to be ideal environments for Sybil and false identity attacks (just as in the case of the similar web based systems: YouTube, etc.). In particular, these attacks are a significant impediment for meaningful electronic petition drives since they render impossible the verification of the eligibility of participants. While many electronic social networks strive for guaranteeing the privacy (e.g., by anonymization) of their users, existing systems for petition drives, like DirectDemocracyP2P.net, encourage users to disclose their real identities and are meaningless when users do not follow this request. We describe a framework and investigate techniques for running decentralized peer-to-peer census processes that enable observers to independently verify the identity of participants in a social network.