I Built AuthShield and Immediately Knew It Wasn't Enough

What happens when auth meets money - and what I learned building it Shipping AuthShield felt good for about a day. The system worked. JWT issuance, refresh token rotation, OAuth integration, role-based access control, rate limiting - everything I'd set out to build was there. I'd documented every phase, explained every tradeoff, written about every decision that mattered. By any reasonable measure, it was done. But something kept nagging at me. AuthShield could tell you exactly who someone is. I