Tracking Transactions One

Most core values in the crypto space originate from cypherpunks’ efforts to preserve people’s rights to anonymity and privacy. As masses of new people entered the space, the Web3 community failed to educate and communicate these values. Ease of use became a priority, and digital wallets initially intended to preserve one’s identity turned into social profiles. Linked across projects, platforms, and social media, most wallets nowadays quickly reveal the real identity of their holders.

The diptych Tracking Transactions (One and Two) highlights how identity breaks through the intended layers of encryption. The background layers symbolize encryption layers and were created using style transfers trained on the artist’s artwork. While the colours and shapes suggest the artist, they represent abstraction and cyphering.

Transactions and wallets are hashed, yet due to unconscious use, each transaction reveals little fragments of one’s identity. With every transaction, emblematized by a 3D sculpture shaped like a mask and diamond, pieces of one’s valuable identity are revealed. These pieces can be traced together; the more a digital wallet transacts, the easier this process becomes. Until the transactions give away the entirety of the model or one’s identity, rendering the encryption ineffective and the space increasingly pseudo-anonymous.