Identity as Information

Identity wants to emerge

Over the long run, any stable joinable key becomes an identity as it accumulates more correlated information about you.

We see this today in the ads ecosystem, where data brokers and cross-site advertising networks use data joining to correlate information about you and track you around the internet. Email addresses, cookies... See more

Whether it’s the enforcement of legal identities, platform lock-in, or more implicit social norms, the logic of individualized identity was baked into web 2.0. With the advent of web 3.0, we have a chance to do things differently. Ultimately, web 3.0 identity will revolve around questions of privacy, portability, and ownership.

If decentralized identity were widely adopted, people would be able to carry their full selves with them as they traverse cyberspace: their affinities and experiences reflected by what they’ve created, contributed to, earned, and owned online, no matter the specific platform. This would bring us closer to how things work in the physical world, wher... See more

Web3 identity solutions center around user-centric ownership models. They also prioritize portability, with solutions promising a foundational identity layer that enables inherent information transferability, rather than retroactively fitted portability solutions as in web2.

Identity is one of our most fundamental human rights. Yet, in the age of surveillance, commodification and centralization, it is under threat. Edward Snowden said it best, "The one vulnerability being exploited across all systems is identity."

Identity is contextual and, if we are to live, breathe, and grow, it has to remain contextual. The Internet of the “authentic self” — a loathsome, aberrant idea if there ever was one — is an exercise in slowly getting strangled by your past selves.

The Era Of Multiple Identities: We Discover, Embrace, & Express Our Multiple Selves -> From networks like Discord, where users are represented by whatever name and avatar they choose, and ItsMe, where people connect in real-time using a creative avatar of their choosing, we’re seeing huge growth in willingness to engage, transact with, and befriend... See more

Identity is contextual and, if we are to live, breathe, and grow, it has to remain contextual. The Internet of the “authentic self” — a loathsome, aberrant idea if there ever was one — is an exercise in slowly getting strangled by your past selves.