1/ people & brands try so hard to be “real” that they come off fake or inauthentic online. now purely fictional/virtual instantiations are seen as more honest & relatable—take crypto: a virtual financial system perceived as more trustworthy than wall street/GAFA. next up? ... 💭
2/ 💭... a pendulum swing in online identity, from careful constructions of real-world self, back to “screenames” and fictional avatars. purely virtual personas will become more valuable than faux "real-world" identities.
3/ social profiles are constrained by tropes, cruised by relatives, employers, political trolls—adversaries to true expression. its risky to put yourself out there and lonely not to. perhaps it'll be liberating to put yourself *into* someone or something else instead?
4/ know @lilmiquella. 1M followers on insta, socially conscious, paid by real brands—she’s a purely fictional CGI character. and haute couture brands are following the trend too. 
5/ “An ever growing skepticism around ‘ambassadors’ means consumers are engaging with purely fictional characters that are, ironically, deemed more authentic” —@protein --> proteinjournal.com/articles/the-y…
6/ Instagram began as as tool, empowering anyone to become an aesthete using filters. The next toolset will empower us to escape the confines of the medium through completely fictional/virtual personas that are more comfortable and expressive, more relatable and honest.
7/ new tech is directionally aligned. ML + ARKit will make it easier to build and play with characters like @lilmiquella while open crypto networks feature pseudonymous identity with a virtual economy to boot.
8/ characters can start playing on social networks, but point home to on open blockchains. Bitcoin, @CryptoKitties have already done this. because you own the asset independent of platform, we’re more engrossed, pouring ourselves into the character, e.g. the Bitcoin Maximalist
9/ developers will be free to permissionlessly explore the design space of social, building a metaverse of more interesting and meaningful interactions for personas to port to, and increasing the value of online identity.
10/ 👀 excited to watch and better understand what's happening .... here’s an early example by @userfeeds, exploring social networking for CryptoKitties: …. see also: #KittyHats #KittyRace
thanks to @iiterature @whatdotcd @tobyshorin @maciejolpinski @ali01 @jacobhorne @sid_coelho @etekis @jonchoi for inspiration and/or hearing me out :)
and its @lilmiquela sorry i misspelled !!!
