ETHBerlin04 Manifesto - Identity Crisis

The world is unraveling. We've been in a permanent state of emergency for years now - Empires old and new stoke endless wars. Supply chains fracture. Markets convulse. Hospitals collapse. Schools rot. The future promised by capitalism is dead on arrival. But in decay, there is also fertile soil.

Now is not the time to build back. It's time to build otherwise. Radically. Urgently. Together.

The so-called "decentralized ecosystem" was supposed to help us break free from the systemic failures we inherited. Instead, what have we done?

• Reinvented hierarchies with new names?
• Designed incentives that reward speculation over solidarity?
• Reproduced the very logic of the world we claimed to replace?

We're not outside the problem anymore. We are the problem. The blockchain space is in the throes of a deep, existential identity crisis. Philosophically, it's lost its compass. What are we building? For whom? And why? What are our common values - if any remain?

"The folly was in thinking that, in a system that allows for almost anything, people would not maximize for their own utility over believing in the mission. To be fair though (and I mean this very seriously) a lot of us aren't exactly clear on what the mission is. It seems like it's mainly a lot of people trading shitcoins and jpegs, but we're told this isn't what we're trying to do."

Gwart: on X.

This confusion bleeds into everything - especially into how we handle identity. We were promised anonymity, resistance, privacy. Instead, we're talking about biometric scanners and social graphs. KYC and soulbound NFTs. Is this the hill we die on? A universal basic income tracked by VCs and verified with retinal scans?

“On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog. On the Blockchain, everyone sees you and your wallet - forever.”

What are we even doing?

Even the most well-meaning voices, like Vitalik Buterin, suggest proof-of-personhood may be the only way to avoid total collapse into centralized identity regimes. But must we really choose between surveillance and collapse? Do we surrender that easily?

We believe there is another path. We believe in privacy by design-as a foundation, not an afterthought. Not identity as a prerequisite for participation, but refusal as a tactic for freedom.

• Identity is arbitrary.
• Biometrics are not keys.
• Sybils are friends.
• Anonymity loves company.

This is the real frontier. Not speculative tokens. Not digital passports. But zero-knowledge cryptography, homomorphic encryption, secure multi-party computation. We have the tools. Let's stop building prisons with them.

"The magic of cryptography gives us privacy, while the resilience of blockchains allows for global, coordinated, coercion-resistant institutions."_

Jarrad Hope: Logos Manifesto.

For this year's ETHBerlin hackathon, we invite you to join the discussion and hack on anti-identity features instead of identity anti-features that boost the individual's privacy.

Like last year, we urge everyone - coders, rebels, educators, radicals - to build under these ten principles:

• Private: There is no need for your name, data, or ID.
• Usable: It has to be accessible and user-friendly.
• Direct: It does not ask for permission.
• Subversive: It transforms established orders and structures of power.
• Social: It empowers people and makes a difference in somebody's life.
• Clandestine: It will not comply.
• Independent: It will not rely on governments, corporates, or investors.
• Impactful: It intends to make a difference.
• Secure: It does not put anyone at risk.
• Libre: It will be free, both as in free speech and free lemonade.

This might be our last chance to rewire the future. So let's gather again in Berlin - not to patch the system, but to conspire.

**ETHBERLIN04 // IDENTITY //CRISIS **

May 24-26, 2024

Kreuzberg, Berlin

ethberlin.org