What people call you

To a niece or nephew, I'm Uncle Tyler. Names are contextual and based on our relationships. A nickname is a good example, too.

Online, we usually have just one profile, and it's the same for everyone in that app. You pick once, and it's consistent, like a brand, with one little avatar that identifies you to everyone.

With Bonafide, each connection is unique, and you control what you share. So in Pools, that means when you're connecting with someone, you control the name and photo you share. When you get the app, you make a default profile. When you connect with someone, you can use your default profile or change it for them. They share theirs with you, so you see them as the profile they chose for you, and they see you as the one you chose for them.

When you create or join a Pool, it starts with your default profile again, and you can change it. In a Pool for my nephew, I'm Uncle Tyler, with a photo of the two of us.

It's a small thing, but you don't have to be just one version of yourself. You can show up differently to different people and in different Pools, the way you already do offline.

There’s a lot more to it than names and photos. In the protocol itself, Bonafide takes a different approach to identity, and it affects how apps on the network work. Pools is just the first app built on it, and it shows that identity doesn’t need to be the same for everyone. You control how you appear to each person.