Vitalik Buterin proposed soulbound tokens, non-transferable identity tokens permanently attached to you instead of tradable assets. The problem: anyone could issue false claims about you with no permission needed, and you'd be stuck with them.
Vitalik dropped a paper, and as part of this paper, they introduced a concept of soulbound tokens. The name is famously terrible. Well, it's interesting because it goes directly to your soul. It's not even person-like. The concept is that it represents your identity. It's not meant to be resellable. It's issued by one institution or one community to you, and it's stuck with you. And now I believe that SBTs, these soulbound tokens, are the future of how we represent ourselves on the internet. But here's the problem. If you cannot transfer it, what if somebody just like lie that, oh, maybe you like committed crime in the past? But is this permissionless? Like, can anybody drop anything about anyone? In the design proposed by the paper, yes.
