2.1 The Transparency–Surveillance Paradox

Public blockchains offer strong transparency and verifiability, but this comes at the cost of structural traceability:

• Wallets can be clustered and deanonymized,

• Transaction histories become permanent behavioral fingerprints,

• Access control often requires doxxing or off-chain KYC.

Meanwhile, the rise of AI systems has generated a parallel crisis: it is increasingly difficult to determine if a piece of content is authentic, synthetic, or manipulated. Trust in what we see and who we interact with is eroding.

The result is a paradox:

• We have transparent ledgers but opaque intent and identity,

• We have powerful AI but fragile trust.