A secret can be worth more than a signature. That is the case the current discussion around Banksy makes plain: his anonymity is not just part of the myth, it is part of the value.
That idea has fresh weight because the same logic is being tested in a very different business. Coca-Cola, founded in 1886, built one of the world’s most effective intellectual property strategies without ever leaning on a patent for its best-known drink. A patent lasts 20 years. The company has been around for far longer than that, and its formula was kept secret to protect the core of the business.
In that model, what the public does not know can become an asset. A business can build recognition through trademarks and design while withholding the thing that gives the product its edge. Ana Neves put the point another way: “That mobile phone was developed by that company”, or “the inventorship of that medicine is attributed to that team of researchers” — ownership and authorship can carry value even when the full details stay hidden.
Banksy fits that same pattern in cultural form. He has become, for street art lovers and fans of justice, the ultimate contemporary hero because he paints, raises awareness of social injustices, and mocks the rich and the establishment on walls and on social media without attaching a public face to the work. His anonymity helps the work travel further than a normal byline would, turning the mystery itself into part of the brand.
The friction is that secrecy is never absolute. Earlier in 2026, it was revealed that the Coca-Cola formula had been discovered using standard lab equipment, and a motivated chemist was able to identify and quantify the ingredients. Even then, there was no confirmation that the discovered formula was truly the Coca-Cola formula. The lesson is uncomfortable for anyone who treats secrecy as a moat: technology keeps advancing, and what is hidden today may be exposed tomorrow.
That is why Banksy matters in this conversation. His anonymity still gives him room to speak with a voice that is larger than any one person, but the same forces that can preserve value can also erode it. If secrecy is part of the asset, then the real question is not whether it can be protected forever. It is how long the mystery can keep doing the work of a name.
