MicroCredentialing 📜

Our past is forgotten over time. Like a balloon losing its air, the surface our history touches diminishes until only the closest around us remember any detail, and inevitably one day the balloon pops. Relying solely on people’s memories to validate who we claim to be is a depreciating asset, unless we can store the keys to those memories somewhere, anywhere. MicroCredentialing is the context that jumpstarts memories; like a good photo, a fragrance, texture of some material, our memories are a doorway that require more keys over time to open.

Institutions today act as sole gatekeepers to great value, perceived or real, and they use it to their advantage. Consequently, we all know people naturally excel in their own unique ways, gaining expertise as they do their thing. MicroCredentialing can validate people's unique paths, which is really all of us, and might apply the pressure institutions need to justify why they are a value add to our own existing networks.

MicroCredentialing can be decentralized using an open peer review process, like Hack Chat. Decentralized MicroCredentialing opens to door to all walks of life validating almost anything, the only requirement is that you submit to each other for judgment. Perhaps this rhymes with peer review processes we’re familiar with, now with permissionless entry allowing for real diversity.

So often we find serendipitous moments where strangers know the same people through completely “independent” paths. Like “6 degrees of Kevin Bacon”, the world around us is separated by a few steps through familiar relationships, the people you’ve surrounded yourself with as you engage the world. These are the people we’ve affected and who’ve affected us, the people that know us best. We rely on those referrals, and with a microcredentialing network of capability validators, the strength of our network can how we’ve exercised your capabilities and even built upon them.

I look forward to exploring this rabbit hole together in the coming weeks 😎