The Inconvenient and Inhuman Wallets

Since crypto wallets built on public-private keys are the underlying entities carrying ledger based transactions, they are the default choice to identify transactors in dApps. While wallet-as-identity might be sufficient in certain pure financial applications where personality is not a concern, it has major shortcomings. To begin with, wallets are difficult to operate for average users, and such difficulties make users vulnerable to fishing schemes, even for the experienced users on large platforms, where massive funds have been transferred to the unintended wallet addresses. Cautious users routinely send test transfers to verify the correct receivers. Such inconvenience and sense of insecurity serve as natural barriers of entry for mass adoption. What makes matters worse is that it opens the door for mismanaged or ill-intended centralized systems to conduct business that’s in complete violation of the crypto spirit - the recent collapse of multiple financial platforms that had operated under the name of simplicity laid bare of such exploitability.

For metaverse, gaming, arts, entertainment, and collaboration in general, wallet based entities are inhuman. Spirits and souls manifested through personalities and liveliness lie at the heart of social activities, and hence individual values and creator economy. Codified identities satisfy machines but not humans. In all the aforementioned areas of applications, contents, behaviors, and images are inseparable. Whereas the hyper financialized crypto activities don’t require, or even disencourage, personalities, the true socialization and collaboration demand it. Wallet, a form of ledger entry, does not serve social applications well.