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Dev.to
7/24/2026
The original title is "Token != Stateless" which is quite short and technical. Let me analyze it.

The original title is "Token != Stateless" which is quite short and technical. Let me analyze it.

Original: Token != Stateless

Short summary

A React Native developer shares their journey understanding web authentication, centering on the stateful-vs-stateless distinction. The post explains HTTP's statelessness, why cookies and sessions exist, and uses a coat-check metaphor to clarify how session IDs work as opaque pointers to server-side data. It covers the progression from naive cookies to sessions to JWT tokens, aiming to make the design decisions behind auth feel deliberate rather than arbitrary.

  • •HTTP is stateless—every request is a stranger to the server
  • •Sessions store data server-side; cookies are just opaque signed pointers
  • •The stateful-vs-stateless distinction unifies all auth patterns

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