<aside> ℹ️ The Passport product team needs to be aware of emerging trends to stay ahead of the game and ensure we're targeting the right opportunities.

Monitoring these trends helps us align our product with the direction the market is heading rather than focusing on the current state.

Last updated 2023-08-01

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Key Trends

  1. AI-assisted fake account creation: As AI technology advances, creating realistic internet accounts becomes easier. This includes detailed LinkedIn profiles with numerous connections and natural-sounding direct messages on platforms like Discord. Twitter/X is unusable and full of scams as of August 2023.
  2. Social network verification: Platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Meta are adding verification systems to ensure the authenticity of users (and organizations they work at) and reduce fraud.
  3. Attestations getting taken seriously by web3 “elite builders”: Attestations are being adopted widely, leading to a trend of "attesting everything." See: Ethereum Attestation Service. There is a growing recognition that the Ethereum community needs to interoperate with each other and EAS is looking like a common standard.
  4. Sophisticated community protection: Communities are implementing new ways to gate access and protect their members, such as Guild.xyz's use of recurring payments for community access.
  5. Meta-aggregation: The future of online platforms lies in meta-aggregation, as opposed to walled gardens. In April 2023, people were outraged about Elon’s censorship of Substack.
  6. Hypercerts: A growing trend in the creation of "mintable monuments" representing future impact that can be sold for profit later.
  7. Privacy and zero-knowledge: Technologies like ZK passports (being piloted at Zuzalu by 0xPARC) and zero-knowledge government ID verifiers Holonym are emerging to help users prove their unique humanity without disclosing their identity. Scroll and Polygon both launched zkEVMs that are getting lots of attention.
  8. Soulbound tokens as merit badges: Projects like Otterspace are introducing the concept of tokens representing achievements and reputation.
  9. Web3 social and exit from web2: As web3 social gains traction, users are moving away from traditional web2 platforms. See: Lens Protocol.
  10. Biometric solutions and pushback: While biometric solutions like Worldcoin are trending, they are also facing significant opposition from users concerned about privacy.
  11. Decentralized hardware: In addition to decentralized software, there is a growing interest in decentralized hardware that offers users sovereignty and protection from surveillance and censorship by governments and large corporations.
  12. Growing recognition that startup growth metrics have been padded: A growing number of startups are admitting they created fake users to generate growth metrics that would be impressive to VCs. One failed startup even admitted to generating 95% of its users.