Systems and methods for authenticating parties and transactions are described herein. The systems and methods may be part of an information wallet system. The information wallet system or a separate authentication system in communication with the information wallet system may facilitate verification and/or authentication of the parties. In one embodiment, the authentication system includes an authentication server configured to receive an authentication request from a first party to authenticate a second party. The authentication server is further configured to transmit an information request the second party. The authentication server is configured to receive second party information and to configured to compare the second party information with a verified second party information. The authentication server is configured to transmit an authentication result to the first party device.