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)
Discussion
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.
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.