Why assume it is against publishers' interests for people to control how they expose their own identity? Advertisers, sure, but publishers? I see privacy as being more orthogonal to their interests than directly against them.
Nevertheless, you're probably right about the business model. I was piggybacking on the idealism of the article we're commenting on. It's fun to just discuss possible futures without worrying about viability once in a while.
> This reply seems to have missed the point of its parent and just picked up on the word fingerprint in a different context.
I am aware that "fingerprint" has different meanings, but the grandparent explicitly talked of biometric authentication (e.g. physical fingerprints) in his last sentence:
> I would prefer this to any of biometric authentication schemes that have been peddled as "passwordless."
I like the parent's overall point, but I suspect its business model is not viable.
Any service that helps the user against the publisher's interests will need to be funded through charging the consumer. Not easy these days.