In the 2010s, the challenge for digital interaction shifted to validating identity — before organisations could interact digitally, they needed confidence in who, or what, was on the other end of the connection. Identity systems and modern cryptography became foundational services for the internet, in the same way networks and cloud computing had before them.
What identity establishes
Identity answers one question: who is this? A login can be genuine, a second factor correct, a device recognised — identity has done its job accurately. But identity was never designed to carry a full trust decision. It is one input into that decision, not the decision itself. See Identity vs Trust for the distinction in full.