The OpenID Foundation announced today that PayPal has joined their board. At first blush, this may not seem like the biggest of big news, but I actually think it's rather significant.
The reason is simple: Michael Barrett, CISO at PayPal and one-time President of the Liberty Alliance, has been a very vocal and public critic of OpenID in the past. So, does PayPal's joining of the OpenID Foundation mean that Michael's security concerns (because all of his criticism was focused on the lack of security in OpenID) have been resolved? Or does it mean that PayPal has recognized that they must have their security concerns regarding OpenID addressed?
In either case, PayPal seems to be assuming that OpenID adoption will become important to their business. I'll wait to hear from Michael for the exact reasoning behind their joining.
