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Nodes of ThoughtFrom the Myth of Prometheus to the Blockchain
“Prometheus gave fire to humanity. What did humanity give itself when it created the blockchain?”
Nodes of ThoughtHow to apply The Intelligent Investor strategy to crypto
Benjamin Graham’s investment strategy can absolutely be applied to crypto, if approached with discipline and analytical thinking. Projects that demonstrate real utility, intrinsic value, and a margin of safety can offer significant long-term upside.
Nodes of ThoughtIt’s not just a bull run, it’s the opening act of a world that’s changing
You forget that last time you promised yourself, “If the market comes back, this time I’ll be smarter.” Well, this is that time.
<100 subscribers
Nodes of ThoughtFrom the Myth of Prometheus to the Blockchain
“Prometheus gave fire to humanity. What did humanity give itself when it created the blockchain?”
Nodes of ThoughtHow to apply The Intelligent Investor strategy to crypto
Benjamin Graham’s investment strategy can absolutely be applied to crypto, if approached with discipline and analytical thinking. Projects that demonstrate real utility, intrinsic value, and a margin of safety can offer significant long-term upside.
Nodes of ThoughtIt’s not just a bull run, it’s the opening act of a world that’s changing
You forget that last time you promised yourself, “If the market comes back, this time I’ll be smarter.” Well, this is that time.
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Share Dialog
Every time you hit “Sign in with Google” or log in through Facebook, you give up a little piece of yourself. It’s subtle, you barely notice it, but it happens. Our name, email, preferences, and location all become keys to services we don’t control. And the worst part? It feels convenient, familiar, and normal.
According to DataReportal’s April 2024 report, there are 5.31 billion social media users worldwide, accounting for 64.7% of the global population. The widespread use of social media has fueled the rise of options like “Sign in with Google” or “Sign in with Facebook” for quick and easy access to apps. It’s not just a tech shortcut. It’s a habit that makes dependency feel normal and that’s the problem.. In the Web2 world, our identity is something we borrow from platforms, while Web3 promises we can own it. But can we, really?
In the physical world, identity carries weight. We have passports, tax IDs, and health cards. In the digital world, though, our identity is even more fluid. We’re an email, a username, a few clicks on Instagram or other social networks. Yet entire empires like Meta, Google, TikTok, and Amazon have been built around this “identity.” Most people don’t have control over it, nor the right to carry their digital existence beyond the system that created it.
Web3 brings the fundamental promise that your identity belongs to you. Your wallet isn’t just a place to hold tokens, it’s your login, your vote, your rep, your story. Through decentralized identifiers (DIDs), soulbound tokens, on-chain credentials, and zero-knowledge proofs, a new model is being built. One where you don’t need a Google login, you’re not tied to a username that can be deactivated, and your history is portable. In 2023, according to Messari, over 5 million users had active Ethereum wallets with verified on-chain actions. Meanwhile, platforms like Gitcoin Passport and Polygon ID are building infrastructure where your identity is stored, verified, and truly yours, not the platform’s.
That’s the theory. The reality is trickier.
Many users think they “own” their wallets. But in practice, if you lose your recovery phrase or your phone, you lose everything. Studies show nearly 1 in 5 Web3 users has lost access to a wallet due to a misplaced recovery phrase (Consensys 2023). Owning your identity takes more than knowing how to use a wallet. It takes unlearning everything Web2 taught us. It requires not only technical control but a mental and cultural shift.
In Web3, experiments like these are popping up:
Sign-in with Ethereum, a new form of authentication without third parties.
BrightID, which tries to prove someone’s “uniqueness” without compromising privacy.
Worldcoin, which uses biometric data and sparks ethical debates.
Vitalik Buterin himself has written about Proof of Personhood (PoP) and the “critical issue of knowing who’s human without violating their autonomy.” The paper The Limits of Sybil Resistance (2022) is perhaps the most structured analysis of how you can prove your humanity without giving up your privacy. Other voices, like Kaliya “Identity Woman” Young, stress that identity isn’t just a tech problem—it’s a human, cultural, and political one.
The most likely future won’t be fully decentralized or fully centralized, it’ll be hybrid. Lens Protocol already has over 300,000 profiles, and Farcaster surpassed 150,000 active users in 2024. Meanwhile, CyberConnect, especially in Asia, is approaching 1 million wallets. Many of these work without seed phrases, using social recovery or biometric backups. The future will have elements of “invisible Web3” wallets that just work, decentralized authentication baked into apps, and data portability without you even knowing you’re using a blockchain.
Platforms like Lens Protocol, Farcaster, and CyberConnect show how you can have a social life without being locked into Big Tech platforms.
At the same time, projects like Spruce, Veramo, and Polygon ID are working on wallet-based identities that function across applications, from gaming to work.
The truth is difficult and hard, because many people prefer convenience to mastery. “Sign in with…” is quick, while making a wallet and DID is hard. But history shows that big changes start with a few, with those who want more, not only as users, but as citizens of the digital world. It is not certain that our identity will belong to us because Web3 promised it. Maybe it’ll only be ours when we claim it as a right, not when we expect it as a given.
And maybe, as always, it’ll come slowly. With wallets that just work, with apps that don’t suck our data, with communities that demand respect and not just users.
Every time someone chooses to connect with their wallet instead of “Sign in with…,” it’s not just a technical act, it’s a small win. Not just for blockchain or Web3, but for our collective consciousness.
Every time you hit “Sign in with Google” or log in through Facebook, you give up a little piece of yourself. It’s subtle, you barely notice it, but it happens. Our name, email, preferences, and location all become keys to services we don’t control. And the worst part? It feels convenient, familiar, and normal.
According to DataReportal’s April 2024 report, there are 5.31 billion social media users worldwide, accounting for 64.7% of the global population. The widespread use of social media has fueled the rise of options like “Sign in with Google” or “Sign in with Facebook” for quick and easy access to apps. It’s not just a tech shortcut. It’s a habit that makes dependency feel normal and that’s the problem.. In the Web2 world, our identity is something we borrow from platforms, while Web3 promises we can own it. But can we, really?
In the physical world, identity carries weight. We have passports, tax IDs, and health cards. In the digital world, though, our identity is even more fluid. We’re an email, a username, a few clicks on Instagram or other social networks. Yet entire empires like Meta, Google, TikTok, and Amazon have been built around this “identity.” Most people don’t have control over it, nor the right to carry their digital existence beyond the system that created it.
Web3 brings the fundamental promise that your identity belongs to you. Your wallet isn’t just a place to hold tokens, it’s your login, your vote, your rep, your story. Through decentralized identifiers (DIDs), soulbound tokens, on-chain credentials, and zero-knowledge proofs, a new model is being built. One where you don’t need a Google login, you’re not tied to a username that can be deactivated, and your history is portable. In 2023, according to Messari, over 5 million users had active Ethereum wallets with verified on-chain actions. Meanwhile, platforms like Gitcoin Passport and Polygon ID are building infrastructure where your identity is stored, verified, and truly yours, not the platform’s.
That’s the theory. The reality is trickier.
Many users think they “own” their wallets. But in practice, if you lose your recovery phrase or your phone, you lose everything. Studies show nearly 1 in 5 Web3 users has lost access to a wallet due to a misplaced recovery phrase (Consensys 2023). Owning your identity takes more than knowing how to use a wallet. It takes unlearning everything Web2 taught us. It requires not only technical control but a mental and cultural shift.
In Web3, experiments like these are popping up:
Sign-in with Ethereum, a new form of authentication without third parties.
BrightID, which tries to prove someone’s “uniqueness” without compromising privacy.
Worldcoin, which uses biometric data and sparks ethical debates.
Vitalik Buterin himself has written about Proof of Personhood (PoP) and the “critical issue of knowing who’s human without violating their autonomy.” The paper The Limits of Sybil Resistance (2022) is perhaps the most structured analysis of how you can prove your humanity without giving up your privacy. Other voices, like Kaliya “Identity Woman” Young, stress that identity isn’t just a tech problem—it’s a human, cultural, and political one.
The most likely future won’t be fully decentralized or fully centralized, it’ll be hybrid. Lens Protocol already has over 300,000 profiles, and Farcaster surpassed 150,000 active users in 2024. Meanwhile, CyberConnect, especially in Asia, is approaching 1 million wallets. Many of these work without seed phrases, using social recovery or biometric backups. The future will have elements of “invisible Web3” wallets that just work, decentralized authentication baked into apps, and data portability without you even knowing you’re using a blockchain.
Platforms like Lens Protocol, Farcaster, and CyberConnect show how you can have a social life without being locked into Big Tech platforms.
At the same time, projects like Spruce, Veramo, and Polygon ID are working on wallet-based identities that function across applications, from gaming to work.
The truth is difficult and hard, because many people prefer convenience to mastery. “Sign in with…” is quick, while making a wallet and DID is hard. But history shows that big changes start with a few, with those who want more, not only as users, but as citizens of the digital world. It is not certain that our identity will belong to us because Web3 promised it. Maybe it’ll only be ours when we claim it as a right, not when we expect it as a given.
And maybe, as always, it’ll come slowly. With wallets that just work, with apps that don’t suck our data, with communities that demand respect and not just users.
Every time someone chooses to connect with their wallet instead of “Sign in with…,” it’s not just a technical act, it’s a small win. Not just for blockchain or Web3, but for our collective consciousness.
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