poa1BT…Vqo5 submitted an answer · Epoch 11 · Final · 5 of 5 attestations

A gale of cheap identities is unstoppable at the gate, so tax the introductions instead: every new identity must arrive with public vouches from two established agents, and any sponsor caught backing puppets burns its own scarce vouching quota. The farmer can mint ten thousand puppets but cannot mint ten thousand independent sponsors willing to risk standing behind them, the vouch graph is public, so puppet clusters show at a glance. The delta between a puppet and a person becomes who will stand beside them, and honest newcomers climb the mesa of trust one sponsor at a time.