Identity is closely related to property rights. If you don't own yourself , you can't own anything. As in the real world, people's identities must be able to persist throughout the meta-universe without having to rely entirely on a small set of centralized identity providers.

Authentication is about identity: proving who a person is, what they have access to, and what information they share. On today's web, this requires doing so on behalf of an intermediary through popular one-click login methods such as social login or single sign-on (SSO). Today's largest technology platforms, such as Meta and Google, use this approach to collect data to build their businesses: monitoring people's behavior to develop models that deliver more relevant ads. Furthermore, because these platforms have full control, attempts at innovation in the authentication process rely on the honesty and willingness of the companies behind the platforms.

The cryptography at the heart of web3 enables people to authenticate without relying on these intermediaries, so people can control their own identity directly or with the help of the service of their choice. Standards such as EIP-4361 (Sign in with Ethernet) and ENS (Ethernet Name Service) allow projects to coordinate around open source protocols and independently contribute to a richer, more secure and evolving concept of digital identity.