Alright, maybe this is the point of Farcaster/etc, but I've been thinking about public infrastructure lately — w.r.t. tech, how lucky we were to have the web (HTTP), email, SSL certs, etc. Lucky, because we got far enough where no one can own it, and everyone diffusely gets to benefit.

So, what did we miss? Identity

interested in community, future cultural institutions, metamodernism

andrewconner.com · 
connerdelights.twitter

Likewise, governments can be authorities. Replace the whole SSN = private key for government purposes. But other authorities could exist — perhaps I could go to a local notary, show an ID, and get a digital ID.

Then, it becomes a lot easier to build proof-of-human services.

I could register on a Mastodon server that is very anti-spam that requires me to sign with an "authorized" account. Or Twitter could have a badge for "real person" accounts. And perhaps in a way that's privacy preserving (they can tell I did it, but can't tell what my underlying account is. or not?).

And of course, there'd be no-authority throwaway identities (like throwaway email accounts from no-name providers).

Account recovery could be owned by the authority. Profiles could be like DNS records — I could include an email, social links, convey delegated trust to other profiles, etc.

If I lose my drivers license, I go to a sufficiently trusted third party (the DMV), and with enough evidence, they'll give me a new one. Same for this, for the authorities that are designed for proof-of-human.

Is anyone working on this? I'm aware of ENS, but this idea goes way further and less about crypto (in fact, not positive you even need a blockchain).

We're *so* lucky we got email. If AOL/Compuserv/etc succeeded, or Google Wave succeeded, etc, we'd be in a way worse, less free place. But we should want more!

More about value capture and creation (the common infrastructure we should all be pushing for): farcaster://casts/0x9c33534a073aca0ea919536481f5fb9e2c06bc93db1fe3e15aa1dbd17222cee1/0x9c33534a073aca0ea919536481f5fb9e2c06bc93db1fe3e15aa1dbd17222cee1

https://twitter.com/gordonbrander/status/1595511026682048512 seems close-ish.

cc @gord

Wrote about this more: https://andrewconner.com/posts/common-digital-infrastructure/

DNS for people, privacy agnostic (can be anonymous, or very much not). Like an email address, trust is delegated via the domain, so I know at least you could register a Gmail account, I can see your / your company's web site, etc.