Identity on Solana — Think SSH Keys, Not Usernames

If you come from Web2, identity usually means something managed by a platform. It might be a username on GitHub, an email address tied to your company account, or a password stored in a product database. In all of those cases, identity exists because a service stores it, recognizes it, and decides how authentication works. This post is my attempt to explain how that changes on Solana in a way a Web2 developer would understand. Why this felt unfamiliar at first That is why Solana identity felt un