[bell-cot]

True-ish.

OTOH - before email existed, the critical "how do we contact the real you?" identifiers were phone numbers and mailing addresses.

And if you failed to pay your phone bill, or rent, or property taxes...the exact same problem - someone else would get "your" identifier.

[tsimionescu]

Your point that phone numbers and mailing addresses work in much the same way is true - but I don't think these have ever been quite as directly tied to identity as email is on the web.

Traditionally, for anything that's even slightly important, either your physical presence ultimately acted as your identity, or significant legal liability protected the non-physical identity (that is, if a court sends an important letter to you at some address, someone else who moved in to that address faces significant legal penalties if they open that letter).