How to prove identity in this peculiar case Lets say Alice wrote a book under the name Alyssa. The only other person who has read the book is Bob. Bob then publishes the same book but under the name Bobby. Is there a way for Alice to prove that the book was originally published under the name Alyssa?
I think it is the &quot;trust problem&quot; which requires web of trust and therefore is impossible to solve strictly. However it can be in essence solved in a way. Alice first publishes a summary of the book under the name of Alyssa and spreads the word as much as possible. The summary specifies a timeframe under which any identity X can claim to be writing a book with the matching summary. If X exists then Alyssa continues to publicly engage with him/her until sufficient difference arises in the actual specifics of the book. After this period Alice shares her book with Bob. Then if Bob publishes the same book but under the name Bobby the trust would be weak since Bobby didn't spoke up when Alyssa published the summary. The emphasized parts are the weak aspects of this mechanism but can be enough for certain trust threshold.