NFTs — Advancing Social Identity [Part 1]

There are three core missions we have for the FSL ecosystem:

• Prove that NFTs are a force for good
• Establish web3 identity and social components
• Remove the barrier to enter Web3 through education & onboard the next generation of users

Today, we’ll be focusing on the second mission — establishing Web3 identity. This is the first installation of our two-part series on Social Identity. Let’s dive in.

The importance of social identity

Our online social identity is more important than ever. We’re spending more and more of our time online. Research from the GWI found that the “typical” global internet user spends nearly 7 hours a day using the internet across all their devices.

That means that our digital presence and identity online is also becoming more valuable than ever. Whatever platform you’re on, whether it’s TikTok, Twitter, Youtube, or Instagram, your following is worth a monetary value. And the more time users are spending interfacing with those identities, the more that value goes up.

In essence, our personas in the digital world are important and should be valued as such.

Why now?

Now more than ever, being able to control and manage your social identity is important.

For one, there’s the importance of online identity and verification. This is perhaps no more apparent than in the recent Twitter checkmark debacle.

For context, Elon Musk’s Twitter buyout has come with some big changes. One of these was to get rid of “verified” checkmarks, which had determined which users were “real” versions of themselves. Instead, Musk proposed a subscription program where anyone could purchase a verified checkmark for $8 a month.

But when the change was implemented, Twitter descended into impersonation chaos. Fake blue-check accounts began to go viral, and panic ensued. Companies like pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly scrambled to correct perceptions when a copycat account tweeted “We are excited to announce insulin is free now.”

Beyond countering fake or prank accounts, there’s also the question of giving power back to creators and away from platforms. This is one of the founding concepts of the Web3 ethos — that third-party platforms shouldn’t hold all the power.

For example, there have been many anecdotal accounts of social media companies like Instagram or Twitter getting rid of people’s accounts or even their entire followings for arbitrary reasons.

While this might be rare, it brings up a deeper philosophical question. Should creators simply be relying on the goodwill and integrity of their “landlords” to ensure that their online identity stays true?

Walled gardens

One step further, what if those platforms fall apart? Looking again at Twitter, the mass layoffs and many changes that billionaire Elon Musk has brought with him caused many to question whether Twitter would continue to exist. For creators who had no say in the future of the platform, many worried that they would lose their followings overnight, at no fault of their own.

All these questions and more emphasize the need for a better system — one where users are more in control of their online personas, where they can be ported across platforms (interoperable)… not kept in walled gardens by third-party rentseekers.

This is where the NFTs come in — enabling unequivocal, decentralized ownership of non-physical assets, and in this case, identity.

What would an internet of NFT-powered social identity look like? Well, it would look a lot less like walled gardens, with rigid boundaries, and instead more like open systems where users can easily port their content and followers across open platforms. Creators, who are the driving force of the internet, would be empowered much more than they are now.

…And that’s just the start.

In our next installation of this series, we’ll explore exactly what those qualities and benefits will look like. Keep a lookout for it!

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