Methods and systems for electronic crowd-based authentication. An example embodiment includes operations or steps for selecting authentication criteria with corresponding validity criteria through a key ring application, pairing the key ring application with authentication data, and transmitting the authentication data for verification by a security server, thereby allowing a trusted user to endorse an unregistered user to provide the unregistered user with access to a secured resource by the selecting of the authentication criteria, the pairing of the key ring application, and the transmitting of the authentication data for verification by the security server.