Identity authentication is a strange thing on the Internet. Being able to be anonymous on the Internet was part of its early appeal, but with the rise of e-commerce and social media anonymity virtually disappeared.

But there is this hybrid version of identity. The hybrid identity is the individual identity merging with an organization’s identity. Your identity as part of your organization’s identity creates a kind of hybrid profile.

Your identity gets merged with the identities of other members of the organization. Together that creates the identity of the organization. Similarly, your identity becomes merged with all of the organization that you belong to as well. I guess this all of part of the social graph.

The relationship of the identities almost creates it is own hybrid identity. How much of these identities is really authentic is a question. A lot of unverified information makes up these identities. Maybe it all averages out and creates something like reality.

While online identity authentication is a modern phenomenon, identity authentication is strange in the physical world too. It is interesting that an identity is enough to unleash all kinds of benefits, rights and obligations.

On one hand, it is the basis for trust.

Humans have been tracking births, deaths and marriages for century. This record keeping seems like second nature, but this early tracking of human lives is not necessarily something that humans have to do.

That having an identity is a kind of currency that allows you to trade on your future. Humans have been sharing information in exchange for vague benefits since the begin of social society. It is a weird to grant permission for things, but identity management of one kind or another has been enabling exchange for centuries.