Over the past week, I started learning about blockchain, and one of the first concepts I encountered was identity. In our everyday lives, identity is the way we prove who we are. Governments issue ID cards with photos and biometrics, banks assign account numbers with passwords, and online platforms like Google or Facebook give us usernames and passwords to access services. These are all forms of identity, but they rely on centralized authorities—institutions that validate and store our information. On the internet, identity is often tied to accounts managed by large corporations. A Google account, for example, lets you sign in to countless applications, but Google ultimately controls that identity. If they revoke access, you lose it. This model works, but it raises questions about privacy, ownership, and control. Blockchain networks, however, introduce a fundamentally different way of thinking about identity. How Identity Works in Blockchain At its core, blockchain identity is based on cryptography.…