In the recent paper about "soulbound" tokens, Vitalik Buterin et al. write that they aim to build technology that is "acceptably non-dystopian". Do any of today's self-sovereign identity projects fit that bill?
Self-sovereign identity: the future of personal data ownership?
Despite the economic value of online identities, major concerns remain around privacy issues. Could the self-sovereign identity model be the solution?
The Path to Self-Sovereign Identity
Today I head out to a month-long series of events associated with identity: I’m starting with the 22st (!) Internet Identity Workshop next week; then I’...
The Path to Self-Sovereign Identity
Today I head out to a month-long series of events associated with identity: I’m starting with the 22st (!) Internet Identity Workshop next week; then I’...
Reinventing identity for a post-human world
Identity as a Sovereign Asset: The ARPA Live ID and the Next Economic Paradigm
#214: Self sovereignty is connected to community care - Lana Dingwall
If you’re on social media and work in the space of entrepreneurship and/or spirituality you’ve most likely heard the term self sovereign over the past few years. I wanted to dive a little deeper into what I feel it means and why it is directly connected to community care - because sometimes when I hear […]
Identity is the Platform
This is the talk I gave at Mindtrek in Tampere, Finland. Slides are available here: http://factoryjoe.com/blog/2009/10/01/identity-is-the-platform/
Digital Sovereignty
The term “digital sovereignty” has become an integral part of current political discourse. Across party lines and administrative levels, there is consensus: Being digitally sovereign is desirable and important. However, it often remains unclear what it actually means to be digitally sovereign and how this desirable state should be achieved.
The Digital Identity Event Horizon
A five year investigation into digital identity and its central role in creating brittle societies.
'Sovereignty' Myth-Making in the AI Race
Tech companies stand to gain by encouraging the illusion of a race for 'sovereign' AI, write Rui-Jie Yew, Kate Elizabeth Creasey, Suresh Venkatasubramanian.
Human identity: the number one challenge in computer science
If the modern ‘problem of identity’ was how to construct an identity and keep it solid and stable, the postmodern ‘problem of identity’ is primarily how to avoid fixation and keep the options open. (Bauman 2011)
vitalik.eth on Twitter / X
2026 is the year we take back lost ground in computing self-sovereignty.But this applies far beyond the blockchain world.In 2025, I made two major changes to the software I use:* Switched almost fully to https://t.co/caFP0K5fYF (open source encrypted decentralized docs)*…— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) January 22, 2026
Anonymous Open Source Projects
Can we really have anonymous open source projects, or does identity play a key role? I dig in.
The Mask-Off Moment for Digital Identity
Our 18-month investigation reveals how digital identity systems create brittle societies. This foreword traces eight case studies that demonstrate the catastrophic failures of digital identity across Estonia, the US, Israel, Ukraine, and beyond.
A Decent Identity Part 1: Theory
This essay outlines a set of capabilities and goals comprising decent social computing and then establishes a framework for assessing how well an ecosystem’s identity system supports those goals and capabilities.
Not that I'm at all against sovereign infrastructure, but it's quite interesting to see so much focus local, interoperable cloud infrastructure while interoperability remains taboo for individuals and communities. bsky.app/profile/chrisshank.com/post/3…
𝕮
Ha obviously im glad there are incentives and investment in sovereign tech stacks! But let‘s not trick ourselves into believing swapping out tech giants with some new companies and regulations will suddenly fix everything.
i guess in a way this is the most widely used one, but also one that is severely underused in other ways. definitely identity. i've long been of the opinion that there are obviously cool things that come from public data and all the public pieces of the proto, but identity is higher impact.
hikikomorphism
@hailey.at what's your favorite atproto feature? Not the highest leverage/most widely used one, ideally something that you think is really elegant/clean at a conceptual level
