Method for establishing and maintaining a person's identity starts at the time the person registers with the system using a mobile device to validate the identity of a person in an inherently anonymous computing environment such as the internet or any other distributed network where face to face communication is not possible. The person will provide information required to establish the person's identity with an authenticator. The authenticator then submits that information to the system administration service to be validated by external databases and services. The external service provides a set of challenge/response questions unique to that person to establish positive identification. Upon successful authentication of the person's identity, the person and their device will be associated with each other and recorded in the system. Each authentication service will define a criterion, labeled as a schema, by which authentication events will be governed.