The first quarter of 2024 is expected to result in modest growth during earnings season. In the crypto sector, Ethereum’s revenue soared, marking a 155% YoY increase. Encouragingly, Coinbase posted a profit on strong trading for the first time in two years. The sector also benefited from a spot Bitcoin ETF approval by the SEC, and a rise in appetite for meme coins.
Introducing….Civic ID!
We’re thrilled to introduce a physical ID card as part of our Civic ID System, marking a step forward in private, compliant, and user-focused identity solutions. The global ID card is usable and receivable across 190 countries. The Civic ID card forms the real-world bridge for the new Civic ID System, which consists of three components: a digital, analog, and mobile identity.
Civic users can receive the physical ID at a designated physical address and undergo verification through an authorized provider. Users will also receive a new Civic Pass in their wallet, which acts as a customized soulbound token that represents an aspect of their digital identity. Civic’s platform enables users to manage their Civic Passes directly on Civic.me, allowing for instant signup and more control over identity management than competitors that call for app downloads or the need to go through specialized hardware.
Use cases that the physical ID card will help solve include a scheme called face farming, where scammers accumulate many verified wallets using video selfies that belong to others. Social media account takeovers and account fakes where people pose as celebrities, journalists, or friends to scam followers can be significantly decreased. Fake videos where authentic identity is crucial – such as in governmental elections – are also anticipated to be an important area to address this year. Reserve your spot on the waitlist now at civic.id.
Diving into new blockchain communities
We kicked off the year by integrating Civic Pass with three new blockchains — THREE! We’ve been hard at work, perfecting the Civic Pass user experience across chains and wallets. In bringing Civic Pass to new blockchain communities, we’re eager to establish ourselves with builders and become a proud partner in bringing best-in-class digital identity services to emerging dApps.
We’re proud to offer Civic Pass to:
- Avalanche builders, who have come to expect low-code tooling and easy configurability.
- Optimism builders, who benefit from a low-cost and lightning-fast L2. Check out our demo here.
- Base builders, who develop on a secure, low-cost, builder-friendly chain.
More new products
We already covered Civic ID, our biggest product announcement of the quarter, but there was another important announcement in Q1 about enhanced IDV verification. With Civic IDV Pass, financial services builders complying with local laws can benefit from more advanced tooling. Companies can use Civic IDV Passes as inputs to their compliance programs. Along with our enterprise-grade identity and access management protocol, Civic IDV Pass presents a golden opportunity for companies setting up for long-term gains and growth. Each Civic IDV Pass indicates that a user’s government-issued identity document has been verified and matches the individual presenting it.
Powerful Civic Pass integrations
We integrated Civic Pass with Solana Token Extensions in the first quarter. Token Extensions, is a new standard for tokens on Solana, and they imbue tokens with a brand new set of features through some technical advancements. One of these features is called a transfer hook, and it allows advanced permissioning to follow a token. Using transfer hooks, we integrated Civic Pass with Token Extensions. This means that identity credentials can now be referenced by a token along its journey through the ecosystem. Information such as a location, age, humanity and government-issued ID may be used to control the token’s transfer rules via Civic Pass. This integration unlocks a world of new use cases possibilities, including RWAs, UBI tokens and live events.
We also helped protect grant programs through integrations with the Avalanche Foundation, as well as an open grants program with Stockpile. We are proud to play an important role in protecting the wishes of true community members when it comes to fund distribution.
As a launch partner of COTI, the fastest and lightest confidentiality layer on Ethereum, we are looking forward to developing innovative products that empower individuals through digital identity.
Showing up in our communities
We made a splash at ETH Denver this year, furthering our partnerships with Polygon ID and Solana by speaking at their events. Separately, we sponsored the Solana Hacker House NYC. Our CEO, Chris Hart, spoke in a fireside chat about the convergence of AI and digital identity. And, we were thrilled to join forces with Raposa Coffee to fuel the Solana ecosystem. Our VP of Engineering, Dan Kelleher, spoke at the Berlin Build Station, where we offered a hackathon prize for our identity track.
We garnered news media coverage from two announcements. For Civic ID, we secured coverage in Blockworks, Coindesk, ITWeb, Invezz, Binance and Coinlive. Our COTI partnership appeared in Hacker Noon, Crypto Potato and Coinspeaker. We also conducted a Spaces on X and appeared in a video interview with Empire DAO.
What’s ahead for Q2
We’re looking forward to making more announcements related to Civic ID. Stay tuned for more updates!