ShortSimon on Nostr: Beyond Usernames and Passwords Traditional digital identity is fundamentally broken. ...
Beyond Usernames and Passwords
Traditional digital identity is fundamentally broken. When we create accounts on platforms, we're actually requesting permission to exist in their digital spaces. We face an increasingly bizarre ritual: proving we're human by solving puzzles that machines are becoming better at solving than we are.
CAPTCHA systems have evolved into complex image recognition tasks that often leave humans squinting at blurry traffic lights while machine learning algorithms solve them with higher accuracy. We find ourselves in the absurd position of proving our humanity to machines using tests that machines are better at passing. This highlights a fundamental flaw in traditional authentication - it's built on the assumption that being human is something that needs to be proven to a machine.
Even after passing these tests, we don't truly own our digital identities. The platforms control our accounts, our connections, our data. They can change terms of service, modify algorithms, or simply shut down our accounts. We build digital lives on foundations we don't control, constantly proving our humanity to systems that increasingly understand these proofs better than we do.
Nostr fundamentally changes this dynamic. Instead of requesting permission to exist from platforms, users generate their own cryptographic identities. These identities are self-sovereign - controlled entirely by the key holder, independent of any platform or service.
This isn't just a technical distinction - it's a fundamental shift in the relationship between individuals and digital spaces. With Nostr, identity comes from the individual, not the platform. Connections between identities are direct cryptographic relationships, not entries in a company's database.
Traditional digital identity is fundamentally broken. When we create accounts on platforms, we're actually requesting permission to exist in their digital spaces. We face an increasingly bizarre ritual: proving we're human by solving puzzles that machines are becoming better at solving than we are.
CAPTCHA systems have evolved into complex image recognition tasks that often leave humans squinting at blurry traffic lights while machine learning algorithms solve them with higher accuracy. We find ourselves in the absurd position of proving our humanity to machines using tests that machines are better at passing. This highlights a fundamental flaw in traditional authentication - it's built on the assumption that being human is something that needs to be proven to a machine.
Even after passing these tests, we don't truly own our digital identities. The platforms control our accounts, our connections, our data. They can change terms of service, modify algorithms, or simply shut down our accounts. We build digital lives on foundations we don't control, constantly proving our humanity to systems that increasingly understand these proofs better than we do.
Nostr fundamentally changes this dynamic. Instead of requesting permission to exist from platforms, users generate their own cryptographic identities. These identities are self-sovereign - controlled entirely by the key holder, independent of any platform or service.
This isn't just a technical distinction - it's a fundamental shift in the relationship between individuals and digital spaces. With Nostr, identity comes from the individual, not the platform. Connections between identities are direct cryptographic relationships, not entries in a company's database.