The fourth quarter of 2023 ended with growth across the crypto sector and a surge in deal funding. Solana experienced substantial growth after it announced partnerships with financial and technology heavyweights, including Visa, Mastercard, AWS, Shopify and Google Cloud.
Elsewhere, institutional investors positioned themselves in the crypto sector in response to the signal of a potential BTC ETF approval.
New products at Civic
As AI continues to gain momentum around the world, a new dynamic is transforming how we interact with each other and with technology. At Solana’s annual Breakpoint conference in Amsterdam, we introduced Proof of Personhood for dApps building on Solana.
To establish Proof of Personhood, an individual wallet is identified as belonging to a unique human. Wallet owners complete a live video selfie to prove their personhood. The owners re-authenticate periodically to maintain a high degree of certainty that the wallet is not later associated with an AI agent or bot. This process provides a more effective way for dApps to screen out AI and protect their services from abuse.
Proof of Personhood fits neatly into Civic’s suite of identity and access management tools, the Civic Pass Platform. To date, more than 700,000 Civic Passes have been issued, and more than 62,000 unique individuals have already established their Proof of Personhood across Solana, Polygon, Polygon zkEVM, Ethereum, Arbitrum, Fantom and XDC.
Engaging with our partners and community at Breakpoint
At the annual Solana conference in Amsterdam, our Chief Product Officer, JP Bedoya, gave a talk about the future of user experience and how users will interact with wallets. It’s no secret that blockchain ecosystems have a long way to go in terms of onboarding the next several million users. Our collective challenge is helping users connect with product benefits immediately — and at the same time making onboarding much easier. To get there, we need to be strategic about making dApps more friendly and familiar, introducing a financial element after users have learned about the product value and making room for self custody. JP’s talk covers the user journey and how identity can help enhance their experience.
In addition to contributing our expertise to the building community, we also supported one of the premier NFT brand communities emerging in the space: Claynosaurz. Civic was a proud sponsor of the main event and biergarten, which attracted the best industry influencers.
Making identity more accessible
Following a huge year of partnerships and integrations across chains, we found new ways to connect people and collaborators with digital identity. Users participating in Rarimo’s Proof of Humanity Quest received rewards upon obtaining a Civic Pass. Builders working with Polygon ID can now easily find us and learn how to integrate Civic Pass on Polygon ID’s marketplace. We also collaborated on tutorials that help people learn to integrate Civic Pass, both on Polygon ID and on Realms. And, our VP of Engineering, Dan Kelleher, spoke at Solana Build Station Berlin, and served as a judge for a Civic prize in the Berlin hackathon. Finally, we served the Fantom foundation by protecting their vote from Sybil attacks for their ecosystem vault round and providing more Civic Passes for users in the Fantom ecosystem.
We’re also catching the attention of leaders and influencers across the industry. Our CEO, Chris Hart, opined about adding distributed ledger technology to the techstack in Newsweek. Our co-founder and chairman, Vinny Lingham, spoke about Civic to trendwatcher Vincent Everts at Breakpoint. And Gitcoin Passport sleuths discovered how Civic Pass contributes to the product’s ecosystem.
What’s next in 2024
As a multichain, multi-wallet digital identity leader, we are committed to leading the expansion of digital identity across chains. In early 2024, we will make more announcements about chain expansions launching soon. Additionally, we have some exciting customer partnerships to announce in our pipeline. We can’t wait to share more details soon.