Inspired by an article from Geoffrey Richards (Ontology’s Head of Community), let’s pressure-test our assumptions about data, identity, and reputation in Web3 👉 LinkedIn
Geoff’s EthCC reflections spotlight a creeping habit: treating user data as a private moat. If Web3 is about user ownership, we need to design like we mean it — starting with decentralized identity and consented, privacy-preserving reputation. Here are seven questions to guide product, governance, and community decisions.
7 questions for the community
- Moats vs. Markets: If your competitive edge depends on locking in user data, are you building Web3 — or rebuilding Web2 with tokens?
- Consent by Design: Where — and how — do users grant, view, and revoke consent for every data use?
- Portability: Can users take their identity and reputation to another app today without losing status or access?
- Proofs, Not Dumps: Which flows can switch from raw data sharing to zero-knowledge proofs (prove X without revealing Y)? Check out Orange Protocol for more information.
- Agent-Age Identity: As AI agents arrive, what’s your plan for agent identity that’s transparently tied to a real user’s intent and permissions?
- Value Share: If data creates value (better matching, lower fraud), how do users capture a fair share?
- Exit Rights: What’s the one-click path for users to export, delete, or re-permission their footprint?
If we wouldn’t be proud to explain our data model to users, it’s the wrong model.
Read Geoff’s original article and tell us how you’d implement user-owned identity and reputation in your corner of Web3. 👉LinkedIn
About Ontology
Ontology is a high-performance, open-source blockchain specializing in decentralized identity and data infrastructure. Built to power the next generation of Web3 applications, Ontology provides developers with the tools to build secure, privacy-preserving systems through Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) and Verifiable Credentials. With a focus on self-sovereign identity, compliance-ready infrastructure, and cross-chain interoperability, Ontology enables trust in every transaction, without sacrificing user control. Whether you’re building for payments, DeFi, or real-world digital identity, Ontology offers the modular trust layer Web3 has been missing.
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