Soulbinding Like a State - by Gordon Brander

Soul-bound tokens. Proof-of-humanity. Self-sovereign identity. The web3 world is awash in schemes to bring your identity on-chain. In response, Molly White asks, “is acceptably non-dystopian self-sovereign identity even possible?” This makes me want to ask a followup question: Is acceptably non-dystopian digital identity even possible? The identity of an individual is essentially a function of her choices, rather than the discovery of an immutable attribute. (Amartya Sen) Would it not be a great satisfaction to the king to know at a designated moment every year the number of his subjects, in total and by region, with all the resources, wealth & poverty of each place […] and be able himself to know with certitude in what consists his grandeur, his wealth, and his strengths? (Marquis de Vauban, proposing an annual census to Louis XIV in 1686) What is identity? Who defines it? Who controls it? What is its relationship to software? When I reflect on the lived experience of identity, I thin

Soul-bound tokens. Proof-of-humanity. Self-sovereign identity. The web3 world is awash in schemes to bring your identity on-chain. In response, Molly White asks, “is acceptably non-dystopian self-sovereign identity even possible?” This makes me want to ask a followup question: Is acceptably non-dystopian digital identity even possible? The identity of an individual is essentially a function of her choices, rather than the discovery of an immutable attribute. (Amartya Sen) Would it not be a great satisfaction to the king to know at a designated moment every year the number of his subjects, in t