Today on That Tech Pod, Laura and Gabi chat with Bastian Purrer and Namik Muduroglu of Human ID. HumanID’s first goal was to bring the “one” in one human, one voice to the internet: there should only be one identity per human. This inspired us to build a single sign-on tool, addressing the beginning of internet identity. We first committed to making it restrictive of multiple accounts: one human, one humanID. The technical implementation of this theory is currently to require a phone number for sign-on; while not perfect, most people will stick to one phone number.

“One human, one voice” does not just mean that people’s identities are restricted. These voices must be free. For a democracy to work, its participants must be free to speak their mind without unfair consequences. This is freedom of speech. In creating a one identity per human system, humanID would jeopardize freedom of speech online, where everything is recorded, without the appropriate safeguard.

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Airs December 28th, 2021