• If you don’t own your content, you’re stuck. Owning your content is necessary for agency! However, it is not sufficient, because…
• If you own your content, but don’t own your contacts, then you will lose your entire social graph when you switch services. Network effect will keep you locked in.
• If you own your content and contacts, but don’t own your ID, you don’t really own anything. Why? IDs are upstream of access. Specifically, this is about who owns your name, and the cryptographic keys that secure your ID, under the hood. If your name is owned by an authority, you lose it if you leave. If your keys are owned by an authority, they are in control . They can lock you out of your stuff, snoop on your private messages, delete your account, or refuse to let you move it elsewhere. So self-sovereign IDs and keys are crucial for agency.
When you own your ID, content, and contacts, you have agency, because you have credible exit . You can seamlessly change services and bring everything important with you, like switching carriers for your mobile phone.
The minimal definition of user agency
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