I thought about this too. I came up with a few different classes of identity: face, mask, and hat. A face would belong to a natural person. This would be an

I thought about this too. I came up with a few different classes of identity: face, mask, and hat. A face would belong to a natural person. This would be an identity type that could have biometrics attached to it. It wouldn't necessarily have a name. A mask would be a synthetic identity, owned by a real person or corporate entity. The person or AI behind it would not necessarily be the same person all the time, but the identity itself would be persistent. Perhaps it actually is the same person all the time, or perhaps its behavior is strictly governed by an employee handbook. The mask obscures the identity of anyone using it. A hat would be a role indicator, which would supplement the face or mask identity without obscuring it. So the Mark Zuckerberg face might don the Facebook CEO hat while speaking for the company, and then remove it while trying to organize a private dinner party. A lot of the current identity system is governments trying to force other people's faces to wear their ugly hats all the time, while preventing anyone but corporations from using masks. If you can choose which masks and hats you can wear, and establish masks and hats that other authorized users can wear, you have control over how you present yourself in different situations, and can give continuity to synthetic entities. It can all be backed and enforced with cryptography. You don't need the government to charter your corporation if you can create a hat re-assignable by 50.1% of N signatures, that has the power to control the corporate assets. You don't need to petition the government for a name change if you can create a new face whenever you want. You don't have to reserve the same username on every site if you can log on with your masks.