{"id":458968,"date":"2022-06-07T16:38:10","date_gmt":"2022-06-07T13:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/struggle-for-web3s-soul-the-future-of-blockchain-based-identity\/"},"modified":"2022-06-07T16:38:10","modified_gmt":"2022-06-07T13:38:10","slug":"struggle-for-web3s-soul-the-future-of-blockchain-based-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/struggle-for-web3s-soul-the-future-of-blockchain-based-identity\/","title":{"rendered":"# Struggle for Web3\u2019s soul: The future of blockchain-based identity"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_84 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a232545da825\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a232545da825\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/struggle-for-web3s-soul-the-future-of-blockchain-based-identity\/#%E2%80%9D_Struggle_for_Web3s_soul_The_future_of_blockchain-based_identity_%E2%80%9C\" >&#8221; Struggle for Web3\u2019s soul: The future of blockchain-based identity &#8220;<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-2' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/struggle-for-web3s-soul-the-future-of-blockchain-based-identity\/#A_%E2%80%9Clack_of_understanding%E2%80%9D\" >A \u201clack of understanding\u201d?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/struggle-for-web3s-soul-the-future-of-blockchain-based-identity\/#A_question_of_trustworthiness\" >A question of trustworthiness<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/struggle-for-web3s-soul-the-future-of-blockchain-based-identity\/#What_if_you_lose_your_private_key\" >What if you lose your private key?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/struggle-for-web3s-soul-the-future-of-blockchain-based-identity\/#Backlash_against_NFTs\" >Backlash against NFTs?<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9D_Struggle_for_Web3s_soul_The_future_of_blockchain-based_identity_%E2%80%9C\"><\/span>&#8221; Struggle for Web3\u2019s soul: The future of blockchain-based identity &#8220;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<div class=\"post-content\" data-v-2a0745c6>The attention, one might suspect, has much to do with the participation of Buterin, blockchain\u2019s wunderkind and the legendary co-founder of the Ethereum network. But it could also be a function of the paper\u2019s ambition and scope, which includes asking questions like: <em>What sort of society do we really want to live in? One that is finance-based or trust-based?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The authors illustrate how \u201cnon-transferable \u2018soulbound\u2019 tokens (SBTs) representing the commitments, credentials and affiliations of \u2018Souls\u2019 can encode the trust networks of the real economy to establish provenance and reputation.\u201d These SBTs <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>ear to be something like blockchain-based <em>curricula vitae<\/em>, or CVs, while \u201cSouls\u201d are basically people \u2014 or strictly speaking, individuals\u2019 crypto wallets. However, Souls can also be institutions, like Columbia University or the Ethereum Foundation. The authors wrote: <\/p>\n<p>There is no shortage of visionary scenarios about how Web3 might unfold, but one of the latest, \u201cDecentralized Society: Finding Web3\u2019s Soul\u201d \u2014 a paper <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/papers.ssrn.com\/sol3\/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4105763\">published<\/a> in mid-May by E. Glen Weyl, Puja Ohlhaver and Vitalik Buterin \u2014 is close to becoming one of the top 50 most <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/hq.ssrn.com\/rankings\/Ranking_display.cfm?TRN_gID=10\">downloaded<\/a> papers on the SSRN scholarly research platform.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cImagine a world where most participants have Souls that store SBTs corresponding to a <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/watch-movies-tv-seriess\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"8\" title=\"Watch Movies &amp; TV Series\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">series<\/a> of affiliations, memberships, and credentials. For example, a person might have a Soul that stores SBTs representing educational credentials, employment history, or hashes of their writings or works of art.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\u201cIn their simplest form, these SBTs can be \u2018self-certified,\u2019\u201d continue the authors, \u201csimilar to how we share information about ourselves in our CVs.\u201d But this is just scratching the surface of possibilities:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cThe true power of this mechanism emerges when SBTs held by one Soul can be issued \u2014 or attested \u2014 by other Souls, who are counterparties to these relationships. These counterparty Souls could be individuals, companies, or institutions. For example, the Ethereum Foundation could be a Soul that issues SBTs to Souls who attended a developer conference. A university could be a Soul that issues SBTs to graduates. A stadium could be a Soul that issues SBTs to longtime Dodgers fans.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>There\u2019s a lot to digest in the 36-page paper, which sometimes seems a hodgepodge of disparate ideas and solutions ranging from recovering private keys to anarcho-capitalism. But it has received praise, even from critics, for describing a decentralized society that isn\u2019t mainly focused on hyperfinancializaton but rather \u201cencoding <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">social<\/a> relationships of trust.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fraser Edwards, co-founder and CEO of Cheqd \u2014 a network that supports self-sovereign identity (SSI) projects \u2014 <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/fraser_again\/status\/1529382977372839937\">criticized<\/a> the paper on Twitter. Nonetheless, he told Cointelegraph:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cVitalik standing up and saying NFTs [nonfungible tokens] are a bad idea for identity is a great thing. Also, the publicity for use cases like university degrees and certifications is fantastic, as SSI has been terrible at marketing itself.\u201d\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Similarly, the paper\u2019s attention to issues like loans being overcollateralized due to lack of usable credit ratings \u201cis excellent,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, the reaction from the crypto community, in particular, has been quite positive, co-author Weyl told Cointelegraph. Weyl, an economist with RadicalxChange, provided the core ideas for the paper, Ohlhaver did most of the writing, and Buterin edited the text and also wrote the cryptography section, he explained. <\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Recent: Crypto 401(k): Sound financial planning or gambling with the future?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>According to Weyl, the only real sustained pushback against the paper came from the DID\/VC (decentralized identifiers and verifiable credentials) community, a subset of the self-sovereign identity movement that has been working on blockchain-based, decentralized credentials for some years now, including ideas like peer-to-peer credentials.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"A_%E2%80%9Clack_of_understanding%E2%80%9D\"><\/span>A \u201clack of understanding\u201d?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Still, the visionary work garnered some criticism from media outlets such as the Financial Times<em>, <\/em>which<em> <\/em><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/610e111e-71a2-4182-ad30-da49530a12f6\">called<\/a> it a \u201cwhimsical paper.\u201d Some also worried that SBTs, given their potentially public, non-transferable qualities, could give rise to a Chinese-government-style \u201csocial credit system.\u201d Others took shots at co-author Buterin personally, criticizing his \u201clack of understanding of the real world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Crypto skeptic and author David Gerard went even further, declaring, \u201cEven if any of this could actually work, it\u2019d be the worst idea ever. What Buterin wants to implement here is a binding permanent record on all people, on the blockchain.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Others noted that many of the projected SBT use cases \u2014 such as establishing provenance, unlocking lending markets through reputation, measuring decentralization or enabling decentralized key management \u2014 are already being done in different areas today. SBTs are \u201cpotentially useful,\u201d said Edwards, \u201cbut I have yet to see a use case where they beat existing technologies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cointelegraph asked Kim Hamilton Duffy, who was interviewed two years ago for a story on decentralized digital credentials, about some of the use cases proposed in the \u201cSoul\u201d paper. How do they compare, if at all, with the work she has been doing around digital credentials?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is similar to my thinking and approach when I first started exploring blockchain-anchored identity claims with Blockcerts,\u201d Duffy, now director of identity and standards at the Centre Consortium, told Cointelegraph. \u201cThe risks and, correspondingly, initial use cases I carved out \u2014 restricting to identity claims you\u2019re comfortable being publicly available forever \u2014 were therefore similar.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While the Soul paper touches on potential approaches to risks and challenges \u2014 such as how to handle sensitive data, how to address challenges with key and account recovery, etc. \u2014 \u201cThese solutions are harder than they may initially appear. What I found was that these problems required better primitives: VCs and DIDs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Weyl, for his part, said there was no intent to claim priority with regard to the proposed use cases; rather, it was merely to show the power of such technologies. That is, the paper is less a manifesto and more a research agenda. He and his colleagues are happy to pass credit around where credit is due. \u201cThe VC community has an important role to play,\u201d as do other technologies, he told Cointelegraph.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"A_question_of_trustworthiness\"><\/span>A question of trustworthiness<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>But implementation may not be so simple. Asked to comment on the practicality of an enterprise like \u201csoulbound tokens,\u201d Joshua Ellul, associate professor and director of the Centre for Distributed Ledger Technologies at the University of Malta, told Cointelegraph: \u201cThe main issues are not technological but, like many aspects in this domain, issues of trust.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>As soon as any input is required from the outside world \u2014 e.g., an academic degree, affiliation or attestation \u2014 a question arises as to the trustworthiness of that input. \u201cWe can raise the levels of trustworthiness of data through decentralized oracles, yet we should acknowledge that that data is still dependent on the collective trustworthiness of those oracles,\u201d Ellul said.<\/p>\n<p>Assume a university is a \u201cSoul\u201d that issues students blockchain-based certificates. \u201cPeople may trust the attestation because they trust the centralized university that makes its public key public,\u201d Ellul said. But then others might ask, \u201cWhat is the point of storing SBTs on a DLT when the university keeps such control?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Or looking at the idea of peer-to-peer work credentials, \u201cIn the real world, would a company honor a peer-to-peer credential issued by an individual or institution unknown to the company? Or would they rather just rely on traditional credentials?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a matter of \u201cshifting the mentality of trust\u201d from centralized institutional trust to trusting networks, Ellul told Cointelegraph \u2014 and that could take some time to achieve.<\/p>\n<p>As soon as any input is required from the outside world \u2014 e.g., an academic degree, affiliation or attestation \u2014 a question arises as to the trustworthiness of that input. \u201cWe can raise the levels of trustworthiness of data through decentralized oracles, yet we should acknowledge that that data is still dependent on the collective trustworthiness of those oracles,\u201d Ellul said.<\/p>\n<p>Assume a university is a \u201cSoul\u201d that issues students blockchain-based certificates. \u201cPeople may trust the attestation because they trust the centralized university that makes its public key public,\u201d Ellul said. But then others might ask, \u201cWhat is the point of storing SBTs on a DLT when the university keeps such control?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Or looking at the idea of peer-to-peer work credentials, \u201cIn the real world, would a company honor a peer-to-peer credential issued by an individual or institution unknown to the company? Or would they rather just rely on traditional credentials?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a matter of \u201cshifting the mentality of trust\u201d from centralized institutional trust to trusting networks, Ellul told Cointelegraph \u2014 and that could take some time to achieve.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"What_if_you_lose_your_private_key\"><\/span>What if you lose your private key?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The paper presents several use cases in areas where very little work has been done until now, Weyl told Cointelegraph. One is community recovery of private keys<em>.<\/em> The paper asks the question of what happens if one loses their Soul \u2014 i.e., if they lose their private key. The authors present a recovery method that relies on a person\u2019s trusted relationships \u2014 that is, a community recovery model.<\/p>\n<p>With such a model, \u201crecovering a Soul\u2019s private keys would require a member from a qualified majority of a (random subset of) Soul\u2019s communities to consent.\u201d These consenting communities could be issuers of certificates (e.g., universities), recently attended offline events, the last 20 people you took a picture with, or DAOs you participate in, among others, according to the paper.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s3.cointelegraph.com\/uploads\/2022-06\/6780d585-4959-4abb-aedd-76022a87177f.png\"><figcaption style=\"text-align: center;\">Community recovery model for Soul recovery. Source: \u201cDecentralized Society: Finding Web3\u2019s Soul\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The paper also discusses new ways to think about property. According to the authors, \u201cThe future of property innovation is unlikely to build on wholly transferable private property.\u201d Instead, they discuss decomposing property rights, like permissioning access to privately or publicly controlled resources such as homes, cars, museums or parks.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Recent:\u00a0Corporate evolution: How adoption is changing crypto company structures<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>SBTs could grant access rights to a park or even a private backyard that are conditional and nontransferable. For example, I may trust you to enter my backyard and use it recreationally, but \u201cthat does not imply that I trust you to sub-license that permission to someone else,\u201d notes the paper. Such a condition can be easily coded into an SBT but not an NFT, which is transferable by its very nature.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Backlash_against_NFTs\"><\/span>Backlash against NFTs?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Inevitably, speculation is settling on Buterin\u2019s motivation for attaching his name and prestige to such a paper. Some media outlets suggested the Ethereum founder was overreaching or looking for the next big thing to spur a market rally, but \u201cThis doesn\u2019t fit Vitalik\u2019s typical approach,\u201d noted Edwards.<\/p>\n<p>Buterin\u2019s motivation may be as simple as looking for another way to maintain and build Ethereum\u2019s platform dominance. Or, perhaps more likely, the impetus \u201ccould be a backlash against the speculation and fraud with NFTs and looking to repurpose them into a <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/technology\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"4\" title=\"Technology\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">technology<\/a> that changes the world in a positive way,\u201d Edwards told Cointelegraph.<\/p>\n<p>In any event, the Soul paper shedding light on decentralized society, or DeSoc, performs a positive service in the view of Edwards and others, even if SBTs themselves eventually prove to be nonstarters. In the real world, one often doesn\u2019t need an all-encompassing, perfect solution, just an improvement over what already exists, which today is centralized control of one\u2019s data and online identity. Or, as the paper\u2019s authors write:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cDeSoc does not need to be perfect to pass the test of being acceptably non-dystopian; to be a paradigm worth exploring it merely needs to be better than the available alternatives.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><template data-name=\"subscription_form\" data-type=\"defi_newsletter\"><\/template><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a> articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/general\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">General category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/struggle-for-web3-s-soul-the-future-of-blockchain-based-identity\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8221; Struggle for Web3\u2019s soul: The future of blockchain-based identity &#8220; The attention, one might suspect, has much to do with the participation of Buterin, blockchain\u2019s wunderkind and the legendary co-founder of the Ethereum network. But it could also be a function of the paper\u2019s ambition and scope, which includes asking questions like: What sort&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":458969,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.cointelegraph.com\/images\/1200_aHR0cHM6Ly9zMy5jb2ludGVsZWdyYXBoLmNvbS91cGxvYWRzLzIwMjItMDYvOGY4N2FmNzUtMTBjZS00YmRkLWI1YTYtZGRjNjQzM2U4ODFmLmpwZw==.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[74894,74983,110221,74891,76320,76174,95118,130043,130042,74892,75995,74355,4976,67879,4965],"class_list":["post-458968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-blockchain","tag-decentralization","tag-decentralize","tag-ethereum","tag-identification","tag-identity","tag-nft","tag-social-insurance","tag-social-wallet","tag-tokens","tag-vitalik-buterin","tag-adoption","tag-social-media","tag-society","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}