[fantasybroker]

Personally, I like the idea of hardware-tied auth (phone/FIDO2 key), that could work for me eventually. However, I am also one of the "anon-in-the-ether" people and don't want a permanent identity on any public service.

A permanent identity comes with many additional mechanics, far beyond just a stable identifier. The biggest one is post karma (including likes): IMO it's at the core of almost everything what's wrong with the modern web. It introduces vile personal and group incentives and leads to an eventual destruction of any honest conversation. While this mechanic exists on public forums, I won't use a permanent identity.

[dcow]

I’d challenge you to live life without a government ID, and without giving your phone number to any “public service”. I’m sure we could be more private than we are, but you aren’t going to get far without your permanent ID.

[pseudalopex]

Stable identifiers were common decades before karma or likes.

[fantasybroker]

Yup, I used to use them back then.

[pseudalopex]

You said stable identifiers come with karma and likes. But you know they come without also.

[fantasybroker]

I mean - yes? I understand what a stable identifier is. Having a unique user ID in a database doesn't magically enable likes on all features. But for the purpose of this discussion I limited my opinion to "public services", i.e. services with a social aspect, which overwhelmingly have this mechanic (to such an absurd extent that I can "like" payments made by people I don't know on Venmo).

[pseudalopex]

> I understand what a stable identifier is.

You do not understand what core is apparently.

[fantasybroker]

From what I understand "core" is a central part of a fruit.