Blank nodes semantics - existential variables?

Hi everyone,

Is the standard semantics of blank nodes in RDF still the same as
existentially quantified variables?

Let "_:b1" and "_:b2" be blank nodes, In the current standard semantics of
RDF, is it still true that the graph below does not necessarily mean that
Bob has two different things?

Bob has _:b1
Bob has _:b2

I.e., two syntactically different blank nodes do not necessarily mean that
they are two different entities.

I know that there has been a lot of discussion on blank nodes in the past,
cf. [1, 2, 3]. I just want to make sure that there are no recent changes on
the semantics of blank nodes that I missed. Please let me know if I miss
some recent updates in this area. Many thanks!


Cheers,
A

[1] M. Arenas, M. Consens. A. Mallea. Revisiting Blank Nodes in RDF to
Avoid the Semantic Mismatch with SPARQL.
https://www.w3.org/2009/12/rdf-ws/papers/ws23

[2] A. Hogan, M. Arenas, A. Mallea, A. Polleres. Everything You Always
Wanted to Know About Blank Nodes. Journal of Web Semantics. 2014.

[3] A. Mallea, M. Arenas, A. Hogan, A. Polleres. On Blank Nodes. ISWC 2011.