The structural failure of digital identity.
Most identity systems authenticate credentials and representations of a person. They do not verify that the claimed person is present and participating at the moment of authorization.
The core failure
Systems reliably answer: “Does the claimant possess the correct data?”
They do not answer: “Is the claimed human present right now?”
- Credentials can be copied, stolen, replayed, or delegated.
- Automation can impersonate humans at scale.
- Accountability dissolves when privileged actions are performed via transferable data.
Why common fixes do not resolve this
Layered security often increases friction without establishing truth. It improves process, not existence.
- MFA can still be satisfied using stolen or delegated factors.
- Biometrics authenticate traits; they do not prove presence as a condition of action.
- Behavioral analysis is probabilistic; adversaries can spoof and adapt.
What changes the outcome
A system must require existence at the moment of authorization. Not as a belief, but as an enforced condition.
Integrity is not a claim. It is a condition enforced by structure.