A person logs into a government service, a bank, and a social media platform using a single digital identity they control entirely. No company stores their personal information. No data broker tracks them across sites. They grant specific attributes—"over 18" or "licensed driver"—without revealing underlying data. Another person loses the cryptographic keys to their self-sovereign identity and discovers there is no password reset, no customer service, no recovery mechanism. Years of digital life—credentials, reputation, access to accounts—disappear irretrievably.