I’ve written about privacy and digital identifiers, self sovereign identity, linked data and covid crimes, linked data and nominalism, genocides and the fractal nature of the web, verifiable credentials, inversion of privacy control, and related questions about social credit systems. As my thinking evolves, I imagine a World Wide Web, or at least a subset of it, where lists of people are not used, since such lists can so easily be misused. A WWW that:
bows to the superiority of the offline world
does not use identities of people or lists of people, since they may be misused by forces of tyranny
uses capabilities for access beyond public read only resources, where capabilities are sort of like digital keys that are kept by people and not by centralized servers, and these capabilities are not associated with any access control lists of people
authentication on the web is not of people, but only of capabilities
allows certain capabilities, call them certified capabilities, that are only granted or revoked through offline methods subject to just and applicable local and national laws, such as identity, address and age verification, are not vulnerable to theft or forgery, and are anonymous when used online
recognizes that certified capabilities are only granted to people, not automated agents or any kind of organization
recognizes that certified capabilities are only granted to guarantee inalienable rights to all people, not status or accomplishment, and they are not to be traded or sold
allows some capabilities, call them non-certified capabilities, that may or may not be granted or revoked through online methods, may or may not depend on certified capabilities, may or may not reflect status or accomplishment, may or may not be anonymous, may or may not be traded or sold, and must be subject to just and applicable local and national laws that restrict their use in order to guarantee the inalienable rights of all people
This is something that I’ve just begun to think about, and I’m not sure yet if it makes sense. I have to research it some more. I’m not sure if anyone else has thought of or is working on anything similar, or if all this is practical or consistent or aligned with freedom yet.