The real problem is how to prove identity while also guaranteeing anonymity.

Because Neo couldn't have done what he did by revealing his real name, and if we aren't delivering tech that can break out of the Matrix, what's the point?

The solution will probably involve stuff like Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs), which are hard to reason about. We can imagine a future where all user data is end-to-end encrypted, circles of trust are encrypted, everything runs through onion routers, etc. Our code will cross-compile to some kind of ZKP VM running at some high multiple of computing power needed to process math transactions, like cryptocurrency.

One bonus of that is that it will likely be parallelized and distributed as well. Then we'll reimplement unencrypted algorithms on top of it. So ZKP will be a choice, kind of like HTTPS.

But when AI reaches AGI in the 2040s, it will be able to spoof any personality. Loosely that means it will have an IQ of 1000 and beat all un-augmented humans in any intellectual contest. So then most humans will want to be augmented, and the arms race will quickly escalate, with humanity living in a continuous AR simulation by 2100.

If that's all true, then it's basically a proof of what you're saying, that neither identity nor anonymity can be guaranteed (at least not simultaneously) and the internet is dead or dying.

So this is the golden age of the free and open web, like the wild west. I read a sci fi book where nobody wore clothes because with housefly-size webcams everywhere, there was no point. I think we're rapidly headed towards realtime doxxing and all of the socioeconomic eventualities of that, where we'll have to choose to forgive amoral behavior and embrace a culture of love, or else everyone gets cancelled.