Web3 stakeholders with hidden identities

The silly games of hidden identities in Web3 have to stop! This is exactly why the industry has so many scams and cannot go forward. Blockchain is not primarily about privacy, it is primarily for trust and security through decentralization!

So, that’s why every Web3 project stake holder (owners, board members) should be doxxed, have their identity disclosed. Yet, the majority of them are keeping their real identities private. Let’s be straight and honest - those with undoxxed identities are most probably (90%+ cases) doing something illegal, scamful or, shady at best.

A few months ago, I stumbled upon a post on LinkedIn made by a guy who seemed to hold a somewhat high role in a big Web3 company. He was appearing on my LinkedIn feed non-stop, trying to be one of those influencers, gurus. He said many stupid things. One day, he posted the following:

“Who cares if a project is doxxed?! Fully doxxed people commit crimes every day. I’m more interested in your background as an operator and roadmap for longevity. You can call yourself whatever you want.”

My thoughts: He was probably high on something, so he spat out something really dumb. From pure social media attention grabbing perspective, that post was pretty good because it really triggered me how stupid it was. However, it was too stupid, so the original poster realized it after the initial feedback and my comment, so he deleted it later. Thankfully, I managed to save a screenshot of the post because I was sharing it with my friends. There’s no point of me disclosing and burning the original poster for the exact reason that there are (too) many “Web3 bros” thinking that being anonymous is cool. I replied to the post with my 5 point-argument, before it got deleted, so I’m going to share those points below and expand upon each of them with additional commentary.

“1 - First and foremost, why would you or anyone hide (be undoxxed)?”. It’s a simple question which begs a simple answer. If you strongly believe that something is good, right and beneficial for others, why would you hide it? You wouldn’t… unless you are hiding your bad intentions. And that is unfortunately the case with so many Web3 projects. Many of them are taking advantage of staying private while potentially acquiring huge profits. So, if the project does well - awesome, everybody is happy. If the project does bad - no problem, the users stay screwed but the owners bear no consequences. I would even argue that, this way, they have the incentive to lead the project to failure. There’s no bad consequences and no need for accountability. With one project you can be called SomingPanda69, in another project you could be PureFriendlySnake. It is easy and simple as that. “2 - I care.”. I personally don’t feel comfortable working people that I know nothing about. If I, as a developer, am comfortable of being disclosed, why you wouldn’t be. Even servers and bartenders are required to have name cards on their uniforms, so we can address them by names if needed. “3 - There’s a reason why people still do “face to face” video calls.” - We can keep it all text chat if you don’t like voice or video calls, but I must look you in the face from time to time. Our brains are capable of detecting when someone is lying or hiding something. “4 - Yes, being doxxed doesn’t guarantee that you won’t rug pull, but is one step closer to building trust.” - Having your identity disclosed is one of the key ingredients for building trust with your users. It won’t physically prevent you from doing something malicious and scamming your users, but it will definitely make you think about it multiple times. “5 - I personally advise our clients to be doxxed as it builds trust”. - This is the most important point. From marketing perspective, you can easily stand out with your brand just by realizing that 90% of them are hiding behind NFT pictures, so you do the exact opposite and stand out!

After all of these points, as a Web3 project owner, do you still want to keep your Web3 identity private? No problem, you may rightfully exercise your right to stay private. It comes with a premium though, as working with anonymous people is more expensive, less secure and harder. That’s why we charge such clients 20-40% more, but also 100% of payment has to be up front. We are risking our work and reputation if our undoxxed clients do something bad. Although we try our best to do screening, one can’t be safe enough even with fully doxxed people. Also, our clients get the benefit of our marketing, reputation and online discoverability. Their investors and users will, hopefully, do their due diligence with some internet browsing where they will find that Valsogard Enterprise and its workers are all reputable with proven working history.