Create virtual identity within minutes

Simple introductory guide on how to separate out virtual life from the physical world

🥁 Context

I have watched more cyber documentaries on Netflix than I care to admit. And, I recently finished all the seasons of “How to sell drugs online (fast)?” and “Breaking Bad” as well. It is safe to say that I am highly motivated to create a second identity on the internet. And, here’s why.

For the illiterates, let me clarify that there is nothing illegal in creating virtual identities. Calm down! You can have as many virtual identities as you want. It’s not like you’re issuing a government ID for a dog… which legally did happen in India.

🧑‍💻 Benefits of a second virtual identity

I was listening to Lex Fridman’s podcast with Balaji Srinivasan, and they discussed his book: The Network State. Again, for the illiterates, Balaji was the CTO of Coinbase and a General Partner at a16z; in short, he’s a smart guy. I won’t go into the details because it’s a 7-hour-long podcast but they discussed online communities, virtual identities, their functionalities, and where are they headed in the future with the rise of cryptocurrency and the metaverse.

One just needs your name, in most cases, to track you down in today’s world. You are way more exposed on the internet than in the physical world. Every movement is tracked: mouse clicks, screen touches, etc.

Btw, if you are one of those retards who say that they have nothing to hide then please don’t bother reading the rest of the article. I don’t care for the likes of you. Nothing personal :)

Facebook (or, Meta) pays millions of dollars to Product Managers and other social engineers every year to manipulate everyday people like you and me. They persist ridiculous amounts of data for each individual. Servers are hacked globally every day. Data is the new oil. Do the math: two and two make four.

All of this is unnecessary because the internet provides a lot of ways to create pseudonymous virtual identities. The founder(s) of Bitcoin managed to do it well. There is no reason for your physical-world identity to be extended to the internet any more than it has to. I’m not saying you should try to open a digital bank account with fake KYC details; that’s illegal. I am saying that people on the internet do not need to know who exactly is using their product unless it is necessary, e.g., banking websites or Amazon during the checkout.

🤷 How to go about it?

It depends on the level of online presence you want. I’d say domain name, email address, Twitter handle, Reddit handle and Discord account are the fundamentals. They should be fine, to begin with.

Ensure that the second identity is never linked back to the first (original) identity in any form or shape. For example, you cannot checkout on Amazon using your credit card with your pseudonymous email address; use your original virtual identity instead.

You can always go the extra mile and disable online web trackers. I’d suggest not using Google Chrome or Safari as default web browsers. Use Brave or maybe something open source. You can always switch to DuckDuckGo instead of using the Google search engine. Use incognito mode while surfing the internet so they don’t remember you when you come back.

Trust me, you’d be surprised to see how wrong the online recommendations will be within just 3 to 4 months. All of this is important if you want to get out of the Matrix.

✏️ Significance of the domain name

The internet has domain names as the physical world as permanent addresses. You need an address for your second identity, don’t you? That doesn’t mean you will necessarily have a lot of guests but an address is still required. Some will say that it’s optional so I will leave it up to your better judgement.

✏️ Significance of the email address

For better or worse, an email address is an equivalent of a phone number in the physical world. Emails have their downsides but that’s another story. You need an email address for your second identity the same way you need a phone number in the physical world. Unless you’re a retard, of course.

✏️ Significance of a Twitter handle

Again, for better or worse, Twitter has become the voice of the internet; ask Elon Musk. Twitter is your friend if you want to reach the masses. It depends on the purpose of this second identity as well; maybe you want to have a silent identity; maybe you want to communicate with a private community. That’s up to you. My job is to list down the essentials.

Securing a Twitter handle will do you good in the long run even if you don’t have a use case for one at the moment. I’d suggest at least creating an account.

✏️ Significance of a Reddit handle

The Internet is all about communities and Reddit is the place to host online communities. Your second identity needs recognition and connections on the internet. Being a part of different communities on Reddit will help you with that. What’s the point of creating a second identity if you are just going to scroll through awful social media platforms all day by yourself? You have the original identity to be miserable.

✏️ Significance of a Discord account

Discord is the equivalent of a restaurant or a house party in the physical world: more private than a town hall but not as much as your bedroom. Reddit and Discord are both used to host virtual communities. Discord is more chatty.

Discord will come in handy for you if being a part of different communities is one of your objectives for the second identity. It is not an alternative to Reddit but an add-on, I’d say. At least create an account and secure the handle even if you don’t intend on using it for now.

🎉 That’s it!

Yep, that’s all it takes to create a new virtual identity. To clarify, these are just the initial steps. You can always be more aggressive about these things. I’d suggest, first thinking of the purpose of the second identity that you want to create. Creating an identity isn’t going to do you any good if you don’t even know what to do with it.

List down all the things you want to use this virtual identity for. Then, you can figure out how aggressive you want to be about it.

Note that I discussed going pseudonymous in this article. I never mentioned anything about being anonymous; there’s a difference. Going completely anonymous is a bit tricky and, honestly, falls in the grey area of illegal activities as well.

In conclusion, it’s always good to separate virtual reality from the physical world. At the very least, you will better get used to the metaverse whenever it rolls out in the mainstream.

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Peace out ✌️