Unfortunately the days of using pseudonyms in meatspace are numbered.
It won't be long before non-trivial numbers of individuals and businesses have augmented reality HUDs that incorporate real-time facial recognition. Hiding behind a pseudonym will become a distant dream.
Plastic surgery.
In many countries you can't even check into a hotel using a pseudonym anymore. No government issued id -> no room.
For better or worse.
Strange times when we're both gaining and losing ground on the personal privacy front.
Sadly you're right.
Bring back mask mandates
If we are to live in a panopticon, it must be mutual. Plebs must have full knowledge of the technocrats/"elites" for the new social contract to be equitable.
Dystopian SaaS: ephemeral digital IDs as a service, like one-use debit card numbers today
I guess we'll need the technology in altered carbon to remain anonymous.
Upload my stack into a new body, who am I now?
“We are all #[2].”
Decades ago me and my brother would often talk about a future of face recognition and how masks would return as a fashion accessory and counter solution to such tech.
Then covid came along and created the bizarre outcome of libertarians demanding we take of our masks.
Kinda contradictory no?
I had the same thought. Those masks are just really annoying though.
I lived in an East Asian country where mask wearing is considered a social norm so it didn't feel odd to me.
But a larger trend to me is, as the cost of surveillance goes down so does the cost to countervail. Leading to a transparent society rather than dictatorship. Another unpopular notion I have is the social credit reporting will arrive via market forces to the blockchain.
That's been the goal of cypherpunks for probably longer than Bitcoin has been around: how do we store probable, destributed ID and reputation in a way that still allows someone to stay anonymous? Like showing an insurance ID that proves you can be trusted without showing your name or personal info, or being an anonymous dark market operator behind a pseudonym whom people still trust.
So yeah you're right. Just hopefully it will do focus on decentralization and privacy.
I think privacy might end up being unobtainable.
The blockchain is too open (eg I can keep my secret but what about all my dealings and descendants?) It only takes one reveal in the next few decades even, to expose address history.
The imagine future populists talking up conspiracy by calling early adopters "time thieves" because we got all the cheese and 95% missed out. This would be fuel for "Know Your Bitcoiner" and the commercial arrival of Social Credit. The nature of an address behaviour is all that's needed until eventual unmasking of ID.
And not to forget the unsavoury individuals among us doxxing fellow bitcoiners.
Over time the system could be too transparent and non reversible so perhaps the best outcome is a new form of social regard based on best conduct in a world where we all see each other
Bitcoin is trending towards more anonymous though. Lightning payments aren't even recorded in the blockchain. Mixing services are getting better and more useful. And now Nostr lets you create an account that isn't tied to your identity. You could build an entire reputation in here without anyone knowing who you are in real life. You still have a sticker credit score, with your number of followers, how many people are willing to zap you, and how well you're respected in the community.
True that deanonymizing tech is improving, but so is the fight against it. Maybe it will be a perpetual war, I don't know.
What does meatspace mean?
Looks like Nostr give anonymity back!
I think Nostr + VPN/TOR will be one of the last frontier for pseudonyms to exist.
Or maybe someone comes up with an even better social protocol.
Plot twist: bitcoiners end up being the ones wearing masks, and governments mandate we don’t wear them.
You must mean Guy Faux masks
Already happened in Denmark.
> The final passage of the bill makes the niqab and burqa illegal to wear in public in Denmark. The hijab, as it refers to body coverings in general, many times a headscarf and does not require the face to be covered, remains legal (as long as there is no face covering)
Woah. Not sure we are ready for that world.
Wear mask 😷😅
I’m sure we can create a simple, comfortable, and wearable device/mechanism to disrupt the recognition software no?
Maybe people will then hide behind masks?
This reminds me to The Private Eye comic:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Private_Eye
Recommended! 👍
To all the people suggesting masks, the Japanese already have facial recognition software that works for that. Their casino cameras have been getting around masks for decades already...
Yikes
We will soon know your true identity, Mr Lopp… 😎
