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DECENTRALIZED ID: Thoughts on WorldCoin and the needs for a decentralized ID system?

In the current world, government creates a citizen's identification. For many things ID is unnecessary. But for others, reliable ID is unavoidable. Like:

-Passports

-Creditworthiness (even in a defi lending world)

-Physical Ownership (Real Estate on an NFT like blockchain).

Removing government from the "ID Business" greatly reduces their power. A good thing. But what is the proper solution? Is ID even required at all? What do you like/dislike about WorldCoin? What other ID solutions are in the works?

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Discussion

Jonathan 2y ago

I would encourage giving this a listen and think about what it means for the state to ascribe reputation or worth to individuals (basically what a “state” or federal ID is)

https://fountain.fm/episode/gagULntQPzMbfTkoPDfJ

CappyNate🍁 2y ago

Our friend Rothbard. Nice recommend. Note, I'm referring to ID or "reputation" in a decentralized world WITHOUT a state. Or as "without" as is practical.

Example: Say you want to lend money to someone else. P2P investing. You'll want to know who they are, their history, and trustworthiness that they will repay you. Sure, you could scour their social reputation (online + offline). But if they're like most scammers they could just close up shop, rebrand under another name, then rug-pull over and over again.

An "immutable" reputation or "identifier" could solve this, by pinning undesirable behavior permanently to the person in question. Not state-run. Open source. But it also creates problems too. Big topic. Love to hear all thoughts.

Jonathan 2y ago

That almost becomes a scarlet letter then. The moral benchmark of what is acceptable becomes the point of centralization, even if the sentence of being an undesirable is doled out by the public.

Lending money or any type of contract must be allowed between any two participants regardless of who they are.

Throughout history individuals bore the responsibility of who to lend or borrow from. We can do one better now and programmatically seal the terms of the contract outside the control of either party.

But I think it’s a slippery slope to rank individuals ability to transact in the market from a high level, let each person make that choice for themselves.

Electra 2y ago

I wouldn't describe WorldCoin as decentralised. A decentralised ID protocol I would use is verida.io and I think, with all the hacking and tax fraud going on with our Aussie MyGov app, I think we should be building our own alternative that they'll have to adopt. People still need to validate their access to government services but the government doesn't need to manage the credentials.

CappyNate🍁 2y ago

Agree about Worldcoin not decentralized. Just an example. But we're not thinking big enough here.

I'm talking a non-government world. Total freedom, virtually no government.

What is govt's function? To control the money. To control security/justice. Redistribute some wealth for healthcare/infrastructure/social/etc. And Controlling identity is a key component to all of that.

At birth, government assigns a birth certificate. Then adds a social security number. Then adds a passport. A driver's license. A credit score is tied in. So on.

I don't want an app to store government derived identities. I want government out of the identity business altogether. Bitcoin gets them out of the money business. Let's remove them from identity too. The less they control, the better.

Identity is still needed for a very few things. Or is it needed at all? I'd argue it's not needed for driver's licenses, because DL's shouldn't exist. Not for social security, because SS shouldn't exist. In an open border state, passports are not needed, however they may be to enter legacy states.

If I'm loaning money for a P2P mortgage, I want a pinned down way to verify the debtor's reputation. Immutable. So they can't run off with my money, create a new identity, and start over. That infers a biometric element, similar to WorldCoin. But I agree, not exactly.

This is the true power of decentralization in my anarchist opinion. To remove the chains. Sorry for the novel. Big topic, didn't know if Nostr could handle it! 🤣