"I am no number": Humanizing Digital Identities

Abstract

Growing interest in decentralized web has brought into focus the need to furnish decentralized digital identities that could uproot the dominant centralized solutions, such as single logins provided by social media platforms. However, these multiple efforts to put the end user in the center of identity management rarely relate to individuals’ psychological needs related to identity enactment and construction, diminishing their chances for widespread adoption. This paper proposes a network formalization of identity theories that incorporates the specifics of identity processes online. From this model, two general, architectural principles for decentralized digital identities are drawn that might guide future work in this area.