Ethereum Co-Founder Buterin Proposes Pluralistic Identity Model for Privacy

Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, has proposed a new model for digital identity called "pluralistic identity." This model aims to distribute power across multiple providers, ensuring privacy and fair access to digital identity networks. Buterin argues that zero-knowledge proof–wrapped IDs, while useful for hiding personal details, can become tools of control if one issuer dominates. This dominance could lead to users losing pseudonymity and facing coercion from authorities demanding a single public identity.

Buterin's model rejects proof-of-wealth anti-Sybil measures, which he believes favor wealthy holders and exclude underbanked users. Instead, he proposes a cost curve where creating N identities costs roughly N², making mass ID creation too expensive for bad actors. This approach is designed to deter malicious activities on the blockchain.

Under Buterin's plan, explicit pluralism could use social-graph platforms like Circles, where trust flows through known connections. Implicit pluralism would mix credentials from governments, social networks, and community groups, ensuring that no single source reaches near-total market share. This diversity of providers increases error tolerance and provides more options for stateless or undocumented individuals to confirm their identity without handing power to one body.

Buterin suggests combining one-per-person schemes with social-graph networks to seed a global ID backbone. He believes such a hybrid could balance privacy, inclusion, and resistance to misuse. He warns that if one provider's market share gets too close to 100%, it could shift the world to a one-per-person model, which has worse properties.

Community reaction to Buterin's proposal has been largely positive. Users on X praised the Circles model as a "live experiment in decentralized identity" that may curb top-down control. If adopted, pluralistic identity could preserve pseudonymity while letting users prove credentials on demand. This model aims to prevent surveillance monopolies and support an open, user-centered ID layer for Web3.