Most major platforms still rely on a very old identity model: one username, tied to one email, tied to one permanent account. Once something goes wrong — lost email, deleted account, forgotten recovery info — the identity is gone forever, even if the user wants to return.

Examples many people run into:

Deleted Reddit accounts permanently lock the username, even if the user returns years later.

Facebook accounts can’t be recreated once deleted, and recovery depends entirely on old email/phone access.

Steam accounts are tied to payment methods or emails people may no longer have.

Many services keep usernames in a permanent record even after deletion.

This creates a strange kind of digital permanence: you can delete an account, but you can’t delete the identity attached to it.

So I’m wondering:

Could online identity work without permanent usernames at all?

Could identity be modular or replaceable instead of tied to a single handle?

Would hardware keys, biometrics, or wallet‑stored codes solve the “lost email = lost account forever” problem?

Why do so many platforms treat usernames as permanent even after deletion?

Is this a technical limitation, a policy choice, or just legacy design?

Could federated systems eventually support more flexible identity models?

I’m curious how others think online identity should work, especially in a world where people change emails, lose access, or want to return to a platform without being locked out of their own name forever.