5 minute read

The Lie We Accepted

“If you’re not paying, you’re the product.”

We’ve normalized this. We’ve accepted that using a service means surrendering our data. We’ve been told this is the only business model that works.

It’s not. It never was. We just didn’t have the infrastructure for anything better.

Now we do.

What “Data Companies” Actually Are

The Extraction Model

  1. Attract users with “free” services
  2. Harvest data from every interaction
  3. Build profiles without consent or understanding
  4. Sell access to advertisers, data brokers, anyone paying
  5. Lock users in with network effects and data hostage-taking

What They Call It

  • “Personalization”
  • “Improving the experience”
  • “Relevant recommendations”
  • “Free services”

What It Actually Is

  • Surveillance
  • Behavioral manipulation
  • Attention extraction
  • Data colonialism

The Fundamental Problem

Your data doesn’t belong to you in their model.

  • Your health records → in their database
  • Your financial history → in their database
  • Your relationships → in their database
  • Your preferences → in their database
  • Your location history → in their database

You are a row in someone else’s table. A profile in someone else’s system. An asset on someone else’s balance sheet.

And when they get breached, sold, or shut down — your data goes with them.

The Alternative: Data at the Edge

What If Your Data Stayed With You?

Imagine:

  • Your credentials live in your KERI store
  • Your history is your Key Event Log
  • Your preferences are your selective disclosures
  • Your relationships are your peer connections

No central database. No extraction. No surveillance.

How It Works

Your KERI Store:

  • Runs on your device (phone, computer, secure enclave)
  • Contains your AIDs, credentials, and attestations
  • You control what’s disclosed, to whom, for how long
  • Cryptographically secured, portable, yours

Services Connect to You:

  • They don’t store your data — you share what’s needed
  • Selective disclosure: show only what’s relevant
  • Time-bounded: access expires when the interaction ends
  • Revocable: change your mind, revoke access

From Data Companies to Service Companies

The Old Model: Extraction

User → Platform → Data Warehouse → Monetization
         ↑              ↓
    "Free" service    You are sold

The New Model: Partnership

User (KERI Store) ←→ Service Provider
         ↓                    ↓
    You keep data      Provides actual value
         ↓                    ↓
    Selective disclosure  Contractual relationship

What Real Service Companies Look Like

They Provide Actual Value

Not “free” services subsidized by surveillance. Actual services people pay for:

  • Verification services
  • Credential issuance
  • Witness infrastructure
  • Integration bridges
  • Specialized processing

They Have Contractual Relationships

Not Terms of Service nobody reads. Actual agreements:

  • What data you’ll share
  • What they’ll do with it
  • How long they’ll have access
  • What happens when you leave
  • What you’re paying (money, not data)

They Treat Users as Partners

Not products to be optimized. Partners with agency:

  • You control your data
  • You decide what to share
  • You can leave anytime
  • Your data comes with you

The KERI-Native Service Model

Services You Opt Into

Every interaction is explicit:

  1. Service offers terms — What they need, what they provide
  2. You review and accept — Or negotiate, or decline
  3. You disclose selectively — Only what’s needed
  4. Service delivers value — What you actually contracted for
  5. Relationship ends cleanly — No data left behind

Data Stays at the Edge

Your KERI store is the source of truth:

  • Credentials — Issued to you, held by you
  • Attestations — About you, controlled by you
  • History — Your Key Event Log, your record
  • Relationships — Your OOBIs, your connections

Services access what you share. They don’t accumulate it.

Contractual, Not Extractive

Every data access is a contract:

  • Explicit scope — What data, for what purpose
  • Time-bounded — Access expires
  • Revocable — Change your mind anytime
  • Auditable — You know what was shared, when, with whom

Why This Works Economically

“But How Will Services Make Money?”

The same way every other business does: by providing value people pay for.

  • Plumbers don’t need your data to fix pipes
  • Accountants don’t sell your financials to advertisers
  • Doctors (should) keep your records confidential

The “data company” model isn’t inevitable economics. It’s a specific choice enabled by surveillance infrastructure and regulatory capture.

The Real Economics

Old model: Extract maximum data, monetize attention, create lock-in

New model: Provide genuine service, earn trust, build reputation

Services compete on:

  • Quality of service
  • Price transparency
  • Trustworthiness
  • Reputation (subjective, plural, community-defined)

Not on who has the biggest data moat.

What Changes

For Individuals

  • Ownership — Your data is yours, cryptographically
  • Control — You decide what to share
  • Portability — Take your data anywhere
  • Privacy — Selective disclosure by default
  • Agency — You’re a partner, not a product

For Service Providers

  • Sustainability — Real business model, not surveillance arbitrage
  • Trust — Earn it through service, not lock-in
  • Simplicity — Don’t store what you don’t need
  • Liability — Less data = less breach risk
  • Competition — Win on merit, not data hoarding

For Society

  • Less surveillance — Data stays distributed
  • More innovation — Compete on service, not data moats
  • Better incentives — Aligned with user interests
  • Resilience — No single point of failure
  • Dignity — People treated as people

The Transition

We’re Not There Yet

This requires:

  • Infrastructure (KERI stores, witness networks, credential ecosystems)
  • Standards (interoperability, schemas, protocols)
  • Adoption (critical mass of users and services)
  • Regulation (recognize data rights, enable portability)

But We Can Start

Every service that:

  • Minimizes data collection
  • Offers clear contractual terms
  • Supports data portability
  • Treats users as partners

…is a step toward this future.

KERI.host’s Role

We’re building reference infrastructure:

  • Witness services that don’t require your data
  • Patterns for selective disclosure
  • Examples of contractual service relationships
  • Tools for data-at-the-edge architectures

Forkable. Self-hostable. Optional. Never a gatekeeper.

The Choice

We can continue accepting extraction as normal.

Or we can build something better.

Infrastructure where:

  • Your data belongs to you
  • Services earn your trust
  • Relationships are contractual
  • You’re a partner, not a product

The technology exists. The patterns are clear. The choice is ours.

Conclusion

The “data company” era wasn’t inevitable. It was a choice — made possible by centralized infrastructure and enabled by our acceptance of surveillance as normal.

KERI offers a different choice: data at the edge, cryptographically controlled by individuals, shared selectively with services that provide actual value.

Not “free” services that cost your privacy. Real services. Contractual relationships. Partners, not products.

The infrastructure is being built. The question is whether we’ll use it.

TODO: Add examples of KERI-native services, economic models, and transition strategies

Updated:

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