Real life experiences say as much about who we are as they do about what we have done or achieved. These are the workouts that you, as a fitness enthusiast, have completed at CrossFit. It’s the Comic-Cons you attended as a Marvel fan. They are the raids that you have completed as a dedicated gamer in World of Warcraft. As a descriptive phrase, passion itself is inherently limited in nature; it’s the experiences that really drive identity.
But in the Web3 space, where digital identity is promoted as a buzzword, we have failed to effectively connect our real-world activities with online presence through on-chain mechanisms, allowing us to truly capture our holistic selves through virtual media.
In Web3, digital identity needs to become more than just changing your social media avatar to a new JPEG you bought to increase engagement with the X app. Time and again we see one-dimensional attempts to bring passionate audiences into the chain through identity mechanisms, and these attempts consistently fall short due to walled garden ecosystems that lack depth, reach and connectivity.
The behavioral flywheel
The way forward lies in broadening our approach to digital identity by focusing on real-life experiences rather than technology-focused labels.
The question is not only how to record or display experiences, but also why we should engage in this strange behavior in the first place, and what to do with it once we have acquired it. There is a need for a behavioral flywheel in which real-world passions drive digital identity and enrich both the online and offline aspects of life.
The trillion-dollar question remains: why does this matter, and how does it drive mainstream crypto adoption?
What can easily be brushed aside as novelty in the pursuit of more technical solutions built on blockchain is actually so much more, given its potential to deliver real value to mainstream consumers. Significantly more attention needs to be paid to enriching existing behaviors and activities in key passion areas, rather than convincing immigrant consumers with complicated technology – no matter how loudly we shout at them about the benefits of decentralization.
While profile photo collections may have been a starting point NFTstheir evolution begins to take shape in a way that gives greater depth to the symbolization of real-world experiences.
There is still a significant distance to cover, but the possibilities for how Web3 can revolutionize our concept of identity – and the rewarding experiences it can unlock for brands, artists and communities – are truly exciting.
As we move closer to a more integrated and meaningful digital presence, it is this layering of experiences around identity that holds the most promise for onboarding the next wave of crypto adopters.