The Truth About DIDs: Web3's Identity Farce or Freedom?

I've been diving into this whole "Web3 identity" thing lately, and let me tell you, it's been a wild ride. Everyone keeps parroting this notion that "Web3 will let you own your identity!" But is that really true, or just another crypto pipe dream? Let's cut through the bullshit and talk about DIDs - Decentralized Identifiers.

DIDs: Your "Digital ID Card" (Supposedly)

Think about it - our physical world has ID cards, passports, phone numbers. Online? We're slaves to corporate giants who own our digital existence. WeChat, TikTok, Gmail - they own YOU, not the other way around.

Web3 evangelists claim DIDs will liberate us. Your identity becomes YOUR asset. Great in theory, but I'm skeptical.

A typical DID looks like this garbage:

did:example:123456789abcdefghi

Generated by you, stored on a blockchain, linked to your wallet. Sounds secure, right? Until you lose your keys or get hacked. Then what?

What CAN These Things Actually Do?

• Identity binding: Prove "you're not a robot" through on-chain activities. Because apparently robot detection needed blockchain?
• Data sovereignty: Control your own data... until some protocol gets exploited
• Web3 login: Like using your wallet but "more unified." Whatever that means.

Several projects are building in this space - Lens Protocol, CyberConnect, Ethereum Name Service (.eth domains). The tech infrastructure is developing on chains like Polygon and Ceramic.

The Questionable Future

Proponents claim DIDs could become:

• Game character profiles (because gaming companies totally want to give up control)
• DAO membership verification (as if DAOs aren't already dying)
• On-chain résumés (LinkedIn but make it unnecessarily complex)

The REAL Challenges

Let's be honest about what's holding this back:

1. There's ZERO standardization - every project does its own thing
2. It's absurdly complicated for normal humans
3. Privacy concerns are MASSIVE - do you really want your identity permanently etched into a public ledger?

Bottom Line

DIDs might be the "identity system of Web3," but that doesn't mean they'll work. The tech is immature, the user experience is terrible, and most importantly - the average person doesn't care enough about "owning their identity" to bother with all this.

I'm watching this space, but until they solve these fundamental issues, DIDs remain a solution in search of a problem that most people don't know they have.