Imagine stepping into a Singaporean hawker center. The air, thick with the aroma of Hainanese chicken rice, char kway teow, and chili crab, hits you like a delicious wall. Hundreds of stalls, each one a mini small business, competing for your eyeballs, your goodwill. Now, you’re probably asking me, what does any of this have to do with the future of digital identity verification. Everything, actually.

Diversity is Key to Verification

Think about it. No national authority – economic, culinary or otherwise – controls the definition of what constitutes “authentic” chicken rice. Each vendor is a permitted business with its own recipe, its own loyal local followers. Some prefer the soy sauce, some the chili. The customer chooses. This organic, decentralized system has developed over decades of culinary competition and innovation. It’s a really useful metaphor for the perfect digital identity verification market. Now let’s fast forward to 2025, where several large companies such as IDEMIA, Thales Group, and Jumio will control the market. This unbelievably concentrated landscape should alarm you to your core.

Are we seriously going to trust the keys to our virtual lives with a handful of companies? And what oversight do we have when they get to decide what’s “authentic” on the internet? What happens to innovation, to competition, to your privacy? It’s not just about convenience — it’s about control.

What Happens When Quality Drops?

In a Singaporean hawker center, competition ensures that everyone is on their A-game. If one food stall begins cutting corners on ingredients or bleeding customers with exorbitant price increases, everyone runs to the competition. That’s the beauty in it — that immediate feedback loop. What happens when verification becomes centralized? We’ve discussed what happens when one actor—or a handful of actors—have control over the gatekeepers to the digital universe.

  • Less Choice: Fewer options for verification methods.
  • Higher Prices: Monopolies can dictate pricing.
  • Decreased Innovation: Less incentive to improve services.

Think about that succulent chili crab. Now picture if you could only buy that one dish at one restaurant across all of Singapore. They would be able to charge whatever they pleased, serve you lower quality ingredients, and you’d have no choice but to accept it. Digital identity in a centralized future That’s the same fear I have for a potential centralized digital identity future. And it’s that outrage, I think, that we’re sleepwalking towards it.

DeFi and NFTs: Hawker Tech

The secret that the hawker centers keep is the magic of decentralization. It’s the opportunity for any person skilled, dedicated to produce their own original work that can become something special and commercially viable. It’s a system that assumes trust, won over time by quality and satisfied customers, not mandated from on high.

Greater accessibility and interoperability are the current promises of DeFi and NFTs. Now imagine your digital identity as an NFT – a unique, verifiable token that’s in your sole control. And it’s indeed true that DeFi protocols let you assert things about your identity. They accomplish all of this while protecting your sensitive data from centralized actors. Want to prove you're over 21? A DeFi protocol might allow you to prove your age without revealing your complete date of birth. Looking to gain entry to a club that has specific security clearance requirements? As long as your credentials are represented by an NFT, you can gain access. It does this without revealing the specific details of your clearance to the service provider.

This isn’t some futuristic fantasy. The building blocks are already here. You have to change your thinking and adopt decentralized solutions. Advocate for demand policies that balance innovation and privacy. The digital identity verification market isn't just about trends and opportunities. It's about the fundamental right to control your own digital self. And that, my friends, is a fight we should all be willing to fight for.

The centralized model being pushed by giants like IDEMIA and Thales, while seemingly efficient, threatens to create a bland, homogenized digital landscape devoid of the vibrancy and resilience of a bustling hawker center. Fund open-source work, push for transparency from providers of verification, and push for policies that put individuals back in control instead of a powerful, central entity. Let’s create a digital identity ecosystem that is as varied, vibrant and reliable as the Singaporean hawker culture. It is too late by the time you finally realize it.

I want you to consider this the next time you find yourself savoring a plate of Singaporean street cuisine. That meal is a tangible symbol of the kind of better, more engaged, more decentralized future we crave. Make sure it’s not a model we have to mourn.