Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin is calling for a new model of digital identity, one that avoids central control but still ensures fair digital participation. The concept, which he labels “pluralistic identity,” focuses on balancing privacy with practical utility.
Buterin’s latest blog details how zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs are already improving identity tech. These systems verify users without exposing personal data.
Projects like World ID, which recently surpassed 10 million users, and Taiwan’s government-backed ZK-ID system show real-world traction. On paper, ZK-wrapped IDs solve major issues, proving you’re real without revealing your identity. Yet, the model doesn’t address everything.
ZK-ID systems still enforce a strict “one-person-one-ID” rule. This limits pseudonymity. In real life, people often use multiple identities: personal, anonymous, and creative. Removing that option reduces privacy, especially in sensitive or oppressive environments.
Additionally, coercion risks remain. Governments or employers could demand users reveal their private keys or app identities. In such cases, ZK tech offers little protection.
Why identity still matters in the digital economy
Ethereum’s Buterin warns that simply using financial hurdles, like staking tokens or paying fees, to restrict fake users doesn’t work everywhere.
Wealth-based identity checks fail in systems like universal basic income (UBI), where everyone should have equal access regardless of resources. Worldcoin and similar models try to distribute value equally. Proof-of-wealth blocks the unwanted participation.
This same logic applies to decentralized governance. Voting systems where power scales with capital create imbalance. A single wealthy user has disproportionate influence, drowning out 1,000 smaller voices.
For true digital democracy, systems need to know not just how much is spent, but who is spending it. Thus, identity becomes key, but not in a rigid, centralized way.
Ethereum’s Pluralistic identity plan fights sybil attacks
It is a fundamental economic insight that the allocation of resources tends to gravitate towards areas with desirably attractive margins.
In this case, the pluralistic identity approach is more cost-efficient than traditional methods and helps mitigate abuse without counterproductive barriers for genuine users.
So far we have discussed only social systems centered directly around individuals, but there are indirect social systems also via groups like support groups or clubs. He further explains this through two models under social-graph representations.
Implied self-design where he uses multiple ID sources, covers varying use cases while broadening user autonomy. Starting from heavy-handed governance to minimal interference by state legislation under one ID framework, killing diversity and flexibility.
