Yeah, the Evolution demo ED gave earlier today.
I watched it and I don't remember anything about it being mandatory. The user accounts are trading addresses in order to send transactions. Why couldn't you just send to an address without using an account?
The whole third tier is designed around having some sort of pseudonym on the network, so yes to use Evolution it would be mandatory. However, nothing is really finalized at this point. I'm still really early in the process of designing the system. Was there some problem with have a permanent pseudonym? If it were mandatory, that would mean you couldn't use evolution without an account on the network, but it doesn't mean anything you do on the network with that account would be identifiable. It's just a means of connecting people who want to be connected basically.
FYI - When looking at creating a decentralised version of Coinbase, the one issue I kept coming back to was general users, mom/pop/teeneagers/waist expanders, ruining the whole security experience by using email services such as hotmail or yahoo. but I think I figured out a way around that.
That's a really good point, and is actually one of my big concerns about mainstream adoption of crypto. Your average crypto user is not going to have bank-level security practices, nor is there a backstop (the bank itself, FDIC, etc.) in case their security does get breached. We're living in a world where every website has a "Forgot Your Password?" link, because people can't even remember their login credentials. We expect the same people who can't remember their PayPal login to be able to properly secure, encrypt, and backup a crypto wallet?
I think that's going to become a core issue. Even once we make crypto easier to use with Evolution, we're still going to have the problem of what to do with people who can't secure their own money!
P.S. If you think about it, modern finance is pretty much idiot-proof to the consumer. Online banking gets hacked? Bank reimburses me. Credit card gets stolen? Bank reimburses me. Don't like a purchase I made? Bank reimburses me. Forget my username/password? Bank resets it.