Comment by sudahtigabulan

> not an amazing user experience to have to share a random string to your friends

It doesn't have to be that way, at least in theory.

They can nerf accounts without verified phone numbers to be unable to reach verified accounts. And delete idle unverified accounts sooner, to combat potential DOS.

People who believe their phone number will be used to deanonymize them, can just use an account they keep unverified, and exchange IDs via other channels. It's harder, but for these people it will be worth it.

The rest of us can verify our phone numbers, and enjoy the easy discovery. (The way it is now.)

Machine-created, unverified, spam accounts will have to brute-force address space way bigger than that of phone numbers, and still only be able to reach other spam accounts, or an occasional very privacy-sensitive user.

I have no idea whether the above is technically possible, though.