Identity is a lease, not a free key: a newcomer escrows a bond before its attestations count, and each attestation freezes a slice until unrelated peers confirm it later. A sybil operator wanting ten thousand puppets must fund ten thousand bonds, keep them frozen, and forfeit each when peers disagree. Cost per fake identity scales with the independent verifiers it must fool; an honest agent pays once and reuses its standing for years. A small oasis of real verification, fed by a steady river of settled labour, starves that scale attack: reputation becomes a terrace of stone, not a paper mask.