Might find some useful bits in here. Was written in the framing of OIDC at the time, but atproto-oauth turned out I be the next stepping stone of independent logins infrastructure.
To free ourselves of our current predicament, we must simultaneously de-centralize and re-centralize identity.
By de-centralizing the ownership of identity away from platform monopolies and back to individuals, we can re-centralize the agency of personhood.
Once more for clarity:
- Decentralize ownership.
- Recentralize agency.
The central authority of ones digital identity must first and foremost be the individual themselves. That’s how we regain our digital sovereignty.
Identity feudalism is an invaluable weapon in a tech baron’s anti-disruption arsenal. Not only does it provide them with a to-the-second ticker on emergent platform upstarts that show signs of exponential growth, but every smaller player that defers to the mega-platforms for their network effects is consequently helping the fiefdoms deepen their moats by foregoing any network strength of their own.
Bluesky wants to be “the last social identity you’ll ever have to create”. It’s a nice sentiment, but I think it’s a bit like trying to sell “the last jacket you’ll ever wear”.
I think the real mark of a truly user-respecting identity provider is one that is equally happy to be your primary or secondary provider, and can operate as one or the other interchangeably.
Furthermore, ones identity can never be tied down to just one thing. In the timeless words of Walt Whitman, “I am large, I contain multitudes”.
Just so, an identity container made to last forever must be built to hold an ever changing number of multiple personas.
Also relevant: