Introduction:
I find myself in the fortunate and certainly shrinking population who remembers and can see the sharp divide between the pre-internet and post-internet eras. Because I have witnessed how we’ve gone from mainstream news asking “what is this ‘email’ thing?” to now building social media verticals into business plans, I feel well positioned to place my eye along that trajectory and see where it heads. For a time, one might have been concerned about the encroachment of the new digital age into our most personal aspects of society. And certainly, I would support vigilance. However, we can now feel optimism as democratisation and decentralisation has become the cornerstone of web3 innovation. It is with that lens that I am going to speak about online virtual identity.
As we navigate the intricate web of online interactions, it becomes increasingly evident that the traditional boundaries of identity are being ensued and replaced with the concept of virtual avatars and alter egos which now play a pivotal role in shaping how we construct our identity. This new concept of virtual identity has elements of the desire to remain anonymous and own our own data, the increased influence and yet drive for decentralisation of social media, the rise of influencers and their importance, and the video game culture that has planted the seeds of digital identity and digital commerce.
In the previous papers, I presented a vision of how users no longer only navigate from flat webpage to webpage but instead visit 3D experiences hosted by brands in their chosen avatar form. In that example, I chose to portray myself as a lumbering but friendly gorilla. I stand by this call. And while this might sound like a novelty, I am going to present an argument that this way of presenting ourselves to others will soon become so much more a part of our identity.
Identity and Gaming Culture
Our starting point ought to be where we see the current 3D generation, in the world of video games. With the advent of streaming platforms like Twitch and venues for e-Sports, gamers are already creating for themselves an identity that is separate from their IRL personas. They build and curate their reputation within that community behind that gamer name, often becoming their personal brand. And though they move from one title to the next, they keep their name in order to maintain the reputation earned through each experience.
What we know is that the younger generation of internet users have normalised the concept of an online alter-ego in these gamer celebrities. And what they appreciate they will mimic.
Identity in Social Media
The concept has moved into social media and the influencer culture as well. There are public commentators, Instagram and X influencers, who are purely known by their alter egos. These social media influencers are often not marketers by trade, they have come to understand the power of a personal brand and have learned to capitalise on that concept. And, once again, because of the success of these ‘everyday’ people, more members of the internet consuming public are going to adopt that concept as success breeds imitation. For example, one can look at names like Mr. Beast, PewDiePie, and Ninja, each of whom have chosen a personal brand over their IRL name as a way to build their reputation.
Web3 and NFT communities have only added to this concept. Because digital ownership and community membership can now be curated by blockchain technology, participants on platforms like X are proudly holding fast to a PFP from their closest community as a way of broadcasting their allegiance. This trend has only just begun and is poised to be strengthened greatly with the idea of 3D avatars and interoperable 3D experiences of the kind YOM facilitates.
Identity IRL
We have seen in recent years the concept of identity being a fluid form of self expression, and would expect that this will continue into the virtual world. The next generation of the internet is perfectly positioned to capitalise on this concept, as identity can now be customised in a much broader manner.
Fortnite gives tremendous insight into how the current gaming generation feels about their online image, and has bridged the gap to brands in order to reap financial rewards on this concept. They run a massive gaming platform and give the experience away for free. They do this purely by selling virtual goods, especially vanity items such as avatar skins, in order to finance the game. And players scramble at the announcement of a new property made available to purchase, spending an average of $102 USD annually in 2020. With a player count of 450M in 2020, the revenue that these purchases generated is over $45B.
One need only imagine the power this concept has when that avatar no longer exists in a single game experience but instead travels from website to website, representing the user on a whole host of experiences, social and otherwise.
The Importance of Anonymity
An aspect that the future is leaning toward is decentralisation of data and the need for anonymity as a layer of protection from discrimination, judgement, and oppression. What the internet promised during its formative years is the democratisation of ideas and equal access to information for all. In the past cycle, however, powerful interests have taken control of chokepoints and onramps. A goal of these interests has been to vacuum up data and then use the levers of control to assert judgement, discrimination and oppression when they feel it necessary. The push to end online anonymity is a big leap into that direction, but one destined to fail. Social trends are pointing to an increased awareness of the power of free speech, the necessity of equal access to ideas, and the protections of anonymity to support those concepts. We can expect with the wider adoption of blockchain technology and the coming web3 age that the call for democratisation and anonymity will be linked and irresistible.
While anonymity has its detractors, who often will cite concerns such as security as a reason to require IRL identification, the dangers of centralisation of power will forever outweigh these concerns. However, we do recognize that policing functions will need to be constructed in order to protect anyone entering this new age. Incentification programs such as reputation systems are part of the plan to encourage just interaction among participants. With each identity a favorability ranking can be attached to identify griefers and trolls, along with blocking, filtering, and monitoring controls that are available at the individual level. As problems arise, the anti-fragile nature of this ecosystem will make adjustments and improvements that over time will flush out bad actors.
The Future of Virtual Identity
Certainly the concept of identity is complex and individualised. While that may be, this psychology of identity is going to be a major aspect of how we interact with the next generation of the internet. The seeds have been planted with the adoption of PFP culture in the web3 space, the idea of identity in the gaming community, and how we have made identity flexible in the real world space. Our belief is that the ability to customise your identity visually with all the creativity that exists in fiction and lore, and the ability to bring that identity across the new internet, is inevitable. And YOM is particularly well positioned to play a part in the design and infrastructure of the systems that will be built to facilitate this new future of identity.
The Ecosystem Director
