Reimagining Digital Identity for the Internet Age
As the internet became central to our lives, digital identity lagged behind. We need a new approach to trust online.
Today, our online presence relies on fragile, centralized logins and surveillance. This setup is risky. We need a system where users control thier identity, not corporations or governments.
Verification isn’t enough. We need portable, flexible identity that works for people and AI. This identity should be secure and private, letting us interact safely online.
AI platforms are becoming powerful gatekeepers. Without proper identity solutions, bots, companies, and governments could control access, incentives, and even speech. Current fixes, like fragmented age checks and intrusive monitoring, raise more privacy concerns than they solve.
self-owned, privacy-focused identity is the answer. Cryptographic passports and zero-knowledge proofs can build trust without sacrificing freedom. it’s about more than just proving you own a key or match a photo.It must move between platforms, supporting trust. It should also cover both humans and AI helpers.
AI is the new frontier. If we don’t act, we risk a future where bots, firms, and states dictate our digital lives. The EU’s age verification app is a step in the right direction. But it’s not enough. We must create a system where everyone owns their data. This means users can verify traits like age, location, and credentials, without disclosing underlying information.
Self-owned identity is the solution. It empowers users with control over their data, ensuring privacy and trust. Cryptographic passports and zero-knowledge proofs can enable scalable trust without sacrificing freedom.
AI platforms are becoming powerful gatekeepers. Without proper identity solutions,bots,companies,and governments could control access,incentives,and even speech. Current fixes, like fragmented age checks and intrusive monitoring, raise more privacy concerns than they solve.
Self-owned, privacy-focused identity is the answer. Cryptographic passports and zero-knowledge proofs can build trust without sacrificing freedom. It’s about more than just proving you own a key or match a photo.It must move between platforms, supporting trust. It should also cover both humans and AI helpers.
AI is the new frontier. If we don’t act,we risk a future where bots,firms,and states dictate our digital lives. The EU’s age verification app is a step in the right direction. But it’s not enough. We must create a system where everyone owns their data. This means users can verify their traits without revealing personal information. Combined with social graph validation, this would allow us to create identity networks that grow virally, not through centralized registration but through real human connections.
Verification isn’t enough. We need portable, flexible identity that works for people and AI. This identity should be secure and private, letting us interact safely online.
AI platforms are fast becoming the new gatekeepers of human activity. They train on our conversations and increasingly act on our behalf. But they lack accountability. AI agents can generate content, apply for jobs, purchase products, and even negotiate contracts. But how do you know if that agent is operating on behalf of a real, unique human? Or a farm of coordinated bots? If you can’t tell the difference, you can’t trust the output. The question becomes: how do we prove personhood and tie it to real accountability,without giving up privacy or control?
Today,identity is centralized and owned by platforms and governments,along with all the data tied to it,leaving individuals with no real control over who sees it,how it’s used,or when it can be taken away. Owning your identity means holding it yourself, not renting it from a provider. This starts with a secure one-to-one mapping between a biological human and a digital portrayal, encrypted and held locally, a version of a cryptographic passport that’s verifiable, portable, and private.
Just as property rights enabled the industrial Revolution, and Bitcoin (BTC) enabled permissionless finance, we need to unlock the next evolution of digital coordination, and that is authenticity at scale.
Every human should have a portable, self-owned identity that can be used across platforms. We also need to ensure that bots and agents can be audited and held accountable, and that DAOs and marketplaces can make decisions based on real, unique participants, not sybil attacks or fake accounts. The world we’re sleepwalking toward a system where governments can cut you off entirely for something you say in public, just as it worked in the USSR, only 100 times more efficient, more permanent, and harder to escape. The future of the internet demands more than patches; it demands new primitives.
