@atomicpoet
It's two problems though:

1) who gets verified?
2) are they who they claim to be?

Rel="me" is better at the first but way worse at the second. Any ID verification where the imposter controls the entire process is pretty weak. It's not that hard to create a legit-looking site to link to.

Trusted instances that vet members are much better verification. It's harder to get a fraudulent journa.host account than to impersonate with a green check.

@codesmith @aaronbuckner