[macspoofing]

>We keep seeing these dystopian stories again and again and again. Does anybody really believe it will ever stop?

I don't think it can. The problem is that these companies are trying to solve the problem of highly sophisticated attackers, at scale.

>I could sleep way better if I knew that two have to mess up for me to lose my digital life. Me and the platform.

You're trying to solve a cultural, legal, and regulatory problem with a technological solution - that's never going to work. That a user can be banned (sometimes, across all the platforms, all at once) is a feature for the regulators and platforms themselves.

[LanceH]

> I don't think it can.

A nominal payment for the purpose of verification could allow someone to "prove" ownership of a number/email/identity.

[macspoofing]

>A nominal payment for the purpose of verification could allow someone to "prove" ownership of a number/email/identity.

1) Not really .. people can steal your private key. And then you have to same problem.

2) Don't payment processor already have inordinate amount of (government-issued) identity data they collect from you? Everything from Driver's license, to Passport, to Social Insurance numbers? How would another piece of information make any difference?

[pjc50]

Works for Metafilter. Surprised it's not more popular.