What Is Digital Identity in the Future of the Web?

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As we spend more and more time on (and in) the web, people are asking some serious questions about “virtual identity”. But what does it mean, what does it do, and how Does it Work? Which organizations are trying to provide it?

Let’s find out.


What Is Virtual Identity?

Virtual identity can be looked at from two angles. Part of virtual identity is a philosophical and social question that has to do with how we choose to represent ourselves online.

Another aspect is a technological question related to the software and systems that allow us to navigate the web while carrying certain information and assets.

The Social Side of Digital Identity



Selecting outlandish eyes in the Ready Player Me avatar customization menus.

From the social side, digital identity is how we represent ourselves online. Some aspects of virtual identity are already familiar and have been for quite a while. Things like profile pictures on social media are a basic example of digital identity.

Other elements of our social digital identities have been developing for a shorter time and are only now becoming important, practical elements of our “real lives.” An example of this would be avatars in immersive environments.

Virtual environments are commonly used for gaming and socializing but are also increasingly being used for business and professional or educational remote collaboration and networking. As a result, there is a lot of opportunity for individuals to explore identity by representing themselves differently in different virtual environments.

We may choose to look like ourselves in professional virtual settings, but we may choose to have more fantastical representations in casual virtual settings. While this may result in multiple different digital identities for each person, these identities will necessarily be tied to our one human identity. That’s where the technical idea of virtual identity comes in.

The Technical Side of Digital Identity



Linking a MetaMask Wallet to Decentraland platform

From a technical standpoint, digital identity refers to the ability to bring identification, payment tools and funds, and other virtual assets with us from one online experience to another. Like the social side of digital identity, many elements of this technological digital identity are already in place.


For example, it’s fairly easy to use payment sites like PayPal on multiple websites while logged in with the same browser. Logging into different online experiences using an established account for a platform like Facebook, Google, or Apple is also an early example of early online “portable” identity.

However, there are a number of reasons that these established approaches to digital identity won’t work in the next generation of the web—at least, not as they currently operate. For one thing, a lot of immersive experiences are their own applications, so you can’t just sign in with other accounts saved by your browser.

Further, new technologies designed in information technology and financial technology are increasingly being used in new ways that aren’t supported by legacy payment systems. For example, blockchains work as a payment tool but also secure physical assets that work across online platforms. However, they aren’t supported by established financial applications.

It may sound like these new technologies are complicating the technical development of digital identity. They are. However, their utility as more than just a payment system and more than just a profile mean that they also have the potential to solve problems beyond the scope of companies like Google.

Who Is Providing Digital Identity?

Organizations are trying to work with the opportunities and obstacles posed by digital identity in the next generation of the internet. These can roughly be divided into legacy computing companies and emerging technology companies. There are also some examples of information technologies combining some strengths of both these other approaches.

1. Apple and Google

Like Meta, Apple allows users to sign into a number of sites using an Apple account. Because Apple has a more complete hardware and software ecosystem than Facebook, this can be a more significant tool. This is particularly true since Apple is actively developing payment infrastructures, like Apple Pay and Apple Wallet.

A lot of the same can be said of Google. While Google has focused less on hardware infrastructure, it has a greater social infrastructure through tools like the Gsuite. So, once a user has logged into a site using their Google address, they can often link contacts, calendars, and other services—making for a more convenient and more cohesive online experience.

2. Meta (Facebook)

For quite a while now, users have been able to sign up and log in to a growing number of online sites and services using a Facebook account. This makes it more convenient to start using new services, but—for the most part—it doesn’t actually make it easier to use those services.

This is largely because the information that Facebook handles isn’t always the most practical. For example, signing into a new online platform with a Facebook account doesn’t make it easier to pay for goods and services. This might have been different if the Libra/Diem cryptocurrency project had panned out, but the coin never materialized.

3. Emerging Websites and Services

We’ve already discussed that a lot of extant digital identity solutions fall short because they don’t connect different platform applications. This problem is being solved by a combination of new technologies and experiences returning to web-based rather than app-based models.



get started page on brave wallet

Brave is a crypto-friendly browser with an integrated wallet. Brave can integrate with MetaMask. Among other services, MetaMask allows users to import non-fungible tokens (NFTs) into compatible online applications. This includes Ready Player Me, which lets users create one virtual avatar that can be used across hundreds of online platforms.



Linking NFTs to your Ready Player Me account.

Liquid Avatar Technologies provides “Self Sovereign Identity services to manage, control, and profit from” digital identity. That includes tools to manage how information is shared across websites and immersive spaces. The company has also announced a pre-paid debit card with rewards for spending money in physical or virtual worlds.


4. Established Innovators

Even if you’re skeptical about the Metaverse and cryptocurrencies, that doesn’t mean that you can’t benefit from a digital identity secured by advanced computing.

Trusted computer giants, including Microsoft and IBM, are working on blockchain solutions to secure virtual identity. They use blockchain and some of the other technologies that you may associate with cryptocurrencies, but they also bring technology, expertise, resources, and trust to the table that cryptocurrency projects can’t offer.

Do We Really Want a Digital Identity Provider?

Our digital identities are already important; they’re just fractionalized and difficult to use. As we live even more of our lives in virtual networks that are increasingly capable of networking with each other, establishing reliable, verifiable, cohesive, and convenient digital identities will become even more important.

However, whoever provides that digital identity service is going to be holding a lot of personal and potentially sensitive data. Some have called for a non-governmental, not-for-profit organization to manage all of that data.

Such an organization would have little incentive to sell data or to use that data against its users. However, if any organization were to offer digital identities, it would be a massive undertaking that would require resources and capital that may be beyond the scope of a non-profit NGO.

It’s hard to predict the future. But it’s likely that in the short term, some of us will create our own digital identities with early Web 3.0 tools like some of those listed above. The rest of us will likely have to wait for the greater emergence and development of solutions from platforms like Microsoft.

Who’s Who in the Future Web?

Digital identities will help us navigate the web, but we also need a way to identify and recognize one another. Both of these elements become more necessary and more complicated as immersive experiences offer us opportunities to explore new methods of self-identity and self-representation.

The need for identity is an ancient one now being solved by emerging technologies. And over time, we can expect to see them become more commonplace in our lives.



three women sitting on couch pointing at laptop on coffee table

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