Several macro economic and blockchain related events marked the third quarter of 2024. At its closing, Bitcoin was on track to finish September with a nearly 7 percent return, its best performance since 2013. In the US, the Fed lowered interest rates and indicated a steady set of rate cuts was on the horizon. Elsewhere, the amount of stolen money in the sector totaled $409 million in the third quarter, which is 40 percent less than in the year-earlier period, but clearly still nothing to be proud of.
Partnerships
In the third quarter, we were excited to join forces with Rentality, the first web3 car rental platform, to securely and efficiently verify drivers’ licenses and enforce age minimums on the Base network. This advanced verification process using blockchain introduces a new standard for security and compliance in car rentals, and peer-to-peer marketplaces.
With a Civic ID Verification Pass, Rentality users can verify their driver’s license virtually to rent a car. This technology reduces friction, enhances trust between both parties, and removes the logistical burdens of physical verification.
The growing need for real-world benefits for users has been a major theme of focus in the crypto industry, which has been in infrastructure development mode for many years. In an economy that now increasingly prefers renting to owning, this integration exemplifies how tokenized identity can create secure, compliant, and user-friendly verification solutions that meet the needs of everyday users and digital-first businesses.
Identity Unleashed Podcast
Make sure to check out the conversation with Rentality on our podcast, Identity Unleashed, where we discuss blockchain adoption in the real world. And, if you haven’t yet perused our podcast playlist, you are missing out!
If you’ve missed any episodes, you’ll want this quick recap about the space we built for our industry’s thought leaders to share their latest visions with our audience.
This August, we hosted the Solana Foundation’s Austin Federa, Head of Strategy, for a conversation about permissioned vs permissionless assets and how Token Extensions are opening doors across the industry. We also had an informative conversation with Jeremy Dillingham of Passport.xyz about identity use cases and the required levels of verification, bot blocking, Sybils, and KYC requirements for protocols, tokens and contracts.
And, we had Dean the Machine of Dean’s List on the show. Dean has been a foundational member of governance structure on Solana. They explored everything from the state of DAOs, quadratic voting, $POLL and beyond.
Syncing With Partners Across the Industry
It was a busy summer for Civic as we attended and spoke on the conference circuit. July began with ETH CC in Amsterdam, where our VP of GTM, Titus Capilnean, presented his take about the future intersection of AI and identity. If you haven’t had the opportunity to watch this presentation, it’s chock full of information and examples of how AI technologies can be misused and how organizations can respond accordingly. Following ETH CC, Titus and Dan Kelleher, our VP of Engineering, joined the Solana Hacker House in London to educate developers about how digital identity can help protect their projects.
We also attended Token 2049 and Solana Breakpoint in Singapore this September. At Token 2049, Civic activated our brand on site with boba tea station sponsorship and engagement in a prime location next to the main stage. Then, we participated in Solana Breakpoint as a sponsor, both at the main event and in collaboration with Claynosaurz and MonkeDAO, influential partners in the ecosystem. While we were there, we were proud to talk identity at the zkPass mixer and tee up more mentorship opportunities with the Superteam DAO.
Finally, we reached out to even more community members with a special identity track for the Speedrun gaming hackathon, and education for Ethereum builders at the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca and Istanbul Blockchain Week.
Media & Education
Throughout the quarter, we shared innovative thinking about hot topics, including airdrops and legislation. In an op-ed in Unchained, we shared our company’s thinking about how to make airdrops safer. We also joined in the conversation started by Vitalik Buterin about how to design better airdrop systems. To further the conversation, we defined the term tokenized identity in CoinMarketCap. On the legislation front, we shared our thoughts with Cointelegraph about what it will take for the US to compete globally in terms of regulation.
When we partnered with Rentality, our news was picked up by CoinDesk, Crypto News, Blockster, CoinMarketCap, and more. With a total of 36 stories and almost 2M estimated views, the story made a splash that continues to make waves.
Finally, we’ve made learning about our Civic Pass products even easier than before with demo videos for CAPTCHA, Liveness, Uniqueness and ID Verification.
What’s Next for Civic in 2024
We’re looking forward to sharing more updates through the end of the year about our products and partners, so expect to see news as we close out the year. We’re also looking forward to attending DevCon and ETHGlobal in Bangkok this November — watch this space!
