We think of ourselves as fixed and the world as malleable, but it’s really we who are malleable and the world is largely fixed. -Naval Ravikant
I listened to a fascinating conversation this week on the Bankless podcast. The hosts, Ryan Sean Adams and David Hoffmann, spent ten minutes discussing identity and how it might evolve alongside blockchain technology.
Here’s the gist: we all carry I.D.s that define us by our physical and geographical properties: gender, age, height, weight, hair and eye color, state and city. These qualities—along with accidental variables like birth nation, race, and beauty—are like book covers. Flat renderings of the stories within. As the internet iterates itself forward, such qualities will lose meaning.
This is already happening on Ethereum. Once it’s settled you’re a human being, you can dream yourself up using NFTs as vessels for reimagined (often pseudonymous) identities.
Ryan and David go deeper, braiding these new layers of virtual expression with their metaphysical implications:
What if we’ve only scratched the surface of self-expression? What if when we looked at one another, we saw only the interior self? What if we could depict ourselves in multitudes…?
The web will keep advancing, whether we like it or not. This means a blank slate of identity for those who choose it. NFTs could very well constitute the virtual selves of tomorrow. Millions are already contemplating this when choosing their digital assets. They are considering their tastes, beliefs, and also, as Ryan and David are right to acknowledge, bank accounts.
NFTs are not free. Social signaling isn’t going anywhere. Nor is classicism likely to change in a virtual world. But it will evolve. A thought that makes me wonder if CryptoPunk-clad avatars will roam the digital worlds of tomorrow like old kings…
What new biases will emerge? How will politics change? Will the tribal affiliations we’ve inherited fade or force their way in? These are lofty, difficult questions.
Progress, however incremental, depends on a turning away from old patterns and behaviors. If history is any indicator, many will resist such changes, conflating adaptation for abandonment. Others will look upon the burgeoning frontiers of tomorrow with renewed vigor, seeking new means of value, purpose, and self-emancipation.
These are lofty, difficult questions. Which is why we should embrace them.