From Confession to Digital Identity: An 800-Year-Old Trick
The confessional had a grid; digital identity has a QR code. Same principle, different interface. If we want freedom, we must reprogram it once more.
In 1215, the Church introduced mandatory confession—Omnis utriusque sexus—the greatest invasion of privacy in the Middle Ages. It was a brilliant move to repurpose existing church infrastructure for a new goal. The McKinsey boys would be thrilled—”asset sweating” in the 13th century. All it took was adding small booths with grilles in churches, creating a monopoly on salvation and control over the powerful that lasted for centuries. If those damned reformers and atheists hadn’t spoiled it, it could still be running today.
But today’s powers-that-be needn’t mourn. They have an even more perfect tool—social networks. No need for mandatory confessions. Human vanity, the need for recognition, and the desire for attention ensure that people voluntarily spill everything about themselves. They add timestamps, photos, video documentation, and even geolocation for immediate practical application. A wet dream for all spies.
Surprise from the North
There’s just one hitch. Some of our fellow citizens still live under the mistaken impression that they have a right to privacy—that they can use pseudonymous accounts and even complicate the state’s determination to protect us by encrypting their private correspondence. As if they didn’t know that email isn’t real mail!
Fortunately, the Danes have it figured out.
“We must rid ourselves of the completely erroneous notion that using encrypted communication apps is a civil right,” explains Peter Hummelgaard, Denmark’s Minister of Justice, highlighting one of the priorities of Denmark’s EU presidency.
And so, just as the Church eight hundred years ago used its infrastructure to introduce mandatory confession, the European Union today is implementing centralized digital identity eIDAS 2.0—the EU wallet. On paper, it promises convenience, but in reality, it ties your identity, finances, communication, and civic rights into a single point that can be switched off at any time. A confessional with a QR code.
In the past, the state had to revoke a passport, driver’s license, or freeze a bank account. It needed police, courts, authorities, banks. In the future, a single click might suffice—and you won’t even go for a beer.
From Monopoly on Salvation to Monopoly on Identity
But that wasn’t all. The Church didn’t maintain its monopoly on salvation just through mandatory confession. As the legendary George Carlin said: God loves you... but he needs money. And so came another masterstroke—monetizing sin and guilt. Indulgences. Pay up, and everything was erased. A business that built cathedrals and funded papal wars.
The same trick is repeating today, just with different indulgence technology. Emission allowances and carbon credits. ESG scores. Verified accounts on social media. Pay and you’re clean. Pay and your voice is more credible. Pay, shut up, and your profile is green again. Same principle, different tech.
And what if someone didn’t obey? In the Middle Ages, excommunication followed—exclusion from the Church, ban on sacraments, social death. Today, it’s deplatforming—cutting off from social networks, banking, payment gateways, or digital services. In both cases, it means the same: exclusion from society.
The Church once monopolized salvation and brilliantly cultivated and monetized our sense of guilt. Today, states and corporations monopolize identity and monetize every click. And just like back then, it’s not about faith or security—it’s about control: the ability to enforce obedience, turn guilt into a business model, and keep every person in a system from which there’s no escape.
Is There Still a Way Out?
Yes—just like five hundred years ago from church confessions and indulgences. Back then, it came with the Reformation, the printed word, and the courage of people not to let the Church dictate what to believe and how to live.
Without technology, however, Martin Luther would have remained just a local rebel in Wittenberg. The printing press turned his 95 Theses into a revolution that changed the world forever.
Today, we face a similar challenge. We need a digital reformation—freedom in technology, freedom tech: systems not controlled by states or corporations, but by people themselves. Decentralized networks, open-source, open social, auditable platforms, and peer-to-peer tools that remove counterparty risks, separate money from state power, and protect our identity from total control.
If we don’t seize this opportunity, we await a fate similar to the Middle Ages—only it won’t be excommunication, but the risk of exclusion from digital society: cut off from social networks, banking, and modern life.
The way out exists, but it requires courage, innovation, and resistance to centralized power. Think it’s impossible? It is possible.
You know who recently won Idea of the Year? Tropic Square from Prague—with the world’s first open and auditable security chip. And on October 21, 2025, this chip was launched in the new model of the hardware wallet Trezor Safe 7—the world’s first consumer electronics device entirely based on open-source principles, transparency, and auditability.
These are the innovations that show the way out.
Yeah, and someone has to write that code.
Cypherpunk.
This essay was originally written in Czech. The original version is also available on this Substack: https://www.alexpilar.com/p/od-zpovedi-k-digitalni-identite-800.