Badges
We’ve launched the Badges section on Identity.
At the moment, it includes more than 210 NFT and SBT collections that were issued over time for events, contests, hackathons, ecosystem programs, and other forms of participation.
You can now explore these collections directly on the site and click badges from public profiles to better understand what a person has actually been part of.
Why this matters
On the surface, this is a product update.
But for me, it is also part of a much bigger idea.
I think SBTs were originally meant to become one of the most useful primitives in Web3. Not as another collectible, but as a real proof of participation.
A proof that you were actually there.
A proof that you joined an event.
A proof that you took part in a contest, contributed to an initiative, shipped something in a hackathon, or earned recognition through real involvement.
That was the promise.
What went wrong
In practice, the mechanic often got distorted.
Over the past few years, many SBTs were distributed far too widely. Mint links leaked. Claims spread beyond the real audience. In some cases, badges ended up in the wallets of people who had no actual connection to the activity at all.
Once that happens, the meaning starts to disappear.
The badge may still exist onchain, but the signal becomes weak.
And that is the real problem.
If everyone can get the same proof, then it is no longer proof of anything meaningful.
What we are trying to fix
That is one of the reasons I wanted to build the Badges section in a more thoughtful way.
I tried to filter and organize collections so they can better reflect real participation and real context, rather than just raw issuance history. The goal is not to show every badge as equal. The goal is to make badges useful again as signals.
Because that is how they should work.
A good badge should help answer simple but important questions:
- Was this person actually part of this?
- Did they really participate?
- Did they earn this through real activity?
What comes next
Going forward, I want Identity to push this much further.
My goal is that contests, programs, and ecosystem activities on the platform should issue SBTs in a much more structured and credible way. Not as endlessly claimable assets for everyone, but as achievements tied to actual participation.
Something that carries weight. Something that helps people understand who contributed, who showed up, who won, and who has a real track record.
In that model, SBTs become much more than badges.
They become part of the trust layer.
They help public profiles say something real. They help communities identify contributors. They help organizers recognize participation. And they help the ecosystem build a better memory of who did what.
Identity should become a place where people can both earn and issue meaningful SBTs for real actions: joining events, participating in contests, contributing to hackathons, winning programs, and being part of ecosystem milestones that actually matter.
I really hope we can rethink SBTs together and bring them back closer to what they were supposed to be from the beginning.
Less noise. More meaning.
What else
We also launched the Notification Center to make it easier to keep up with what is happening across the platform.
The goal is simple: users should always be able to quickly understand what is new, whether they received a new badge, a new post was published, a new contest was launched, or any other important update happened on Identity.
I hope this makes the experience more convenient and helps people stay connected to the activity happening across the ecosystem.
As always, feedback is very welcome.
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