Purple Press Developer Dispatch 03

From Polygon ID, SPN, Techstars to DevX Global Tour, this is Purple Press Edition 3, where the people at Polygon Labs unpack all the events, launches, and initiatives that are fresh off the press and creating ripples in the Polygon protocol ecosystem… with the ultimate view to create consistent value for Polygon builders.

Nader Dabit once wrote: “In software, and particularly in open source, the value of an ecosystem continues to grow stronger as more developers build within it.”

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In Web3, where open-source development is prioritized, developers do not reside at the tail-end of a sales funnel but are the drivers of the protocol vision. The community remains central to fostering innovation, and all efforts are, therefore, directed toward building the community from the ground-up.

But… a community cannot be built with hackathons or a Discord channel alone. While these are important, they are just one among myriad touch-points of value creation.

At Polygon Labs, we want to meet developers where they are and help them create touchpoints of value. Value flows from building amazing protocols, solving developer pain points, making technology accessible, evangelizing the technology through education and advocacy, and creating the platforms and means of open dialog.

So, grab a cup of your favorite beverage, anon, and let's dive into the currents that propel the community forward! ☕

PS. This is a blog version of a bi-weekly newsletter that you should definitely subscribe to.

Building something useful ⛑️

If you are among those who feel the need to wind off after a few hours of surfing the Web, know that the internet is going to be a whole lot messier soon. The internet is on the verge of becoming a veritable minefield. The emergence of AI systems that surpass the Turing test and flawlessly replicate human voices brings with it a new set of challenges. We must brace ourselves for an incoming tidal wave of spam, identity theft, and phishing attempts that could transform the internet from a realm of boundless possibilities into a potential disaster.

But why?

In the physical world, we are recognized by a single identity, but once we step into the digital world, things get complicated. We become fragmented, forced to construct multiple digital personas across various services and platforms. Turning these disjointed identities into a cohesive, digital version is a tedious process that requires building trust from scratch.

But, there is a solve… one that involves self-sovereign identity (SSI) and zk proofs.

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Polygon ID is a set of identity tools that allows developers to build user experiences to generate zk proofs to prove statements on-chain based on real-world documents. Based on an implementation of the Iden3 protocol, Polygon ID combines a consolidated standard with private on-chain verification, composability, and most importantly, a growing ecosystem of builders using Polygon ID tooling. With zero-knowledge proofs, identities are separated from key pairs using "Identity States" defined using zk proofs and Merkle trees. With privacy by design and a focus on growing the ecosystem of builders using the technology, Polygon ID may just be the missing piece in the SSI puzzle.

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Recently, the Polygon ID team shipped 3 major updates, focused on better UX, tools and integration, so as to onboard more builders and make it easier for devs to integrate decentralized identity into dApps.

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Simultaneously, the Polygon ID builder community has been thriving and builders are making the choice of a powerful decentralized identity system for their users… which begs the question, have you built with Polygon ID, yet?

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Solving developer pain points - 3 Deep Dives 🪂

Improved user experience & new use cases

With Polygon ID, the implications on the user experience are far-reaching.

For starters, Polygon ID can be used to eliminate the need for passwords and allows devs to  implement passwordless authentication. Therefore, developers can easily onboard users without sacrificing user privacy. This is because verifiable credentials would be reusable, so that once users receive credentials (e.g., KYC, proof of age, place of work, etc.), they can reuse that credential on each service they sign up for. User reputation can also be composable. In other words, users can build reputation across multiple apps that can be collated and accessed by new services on sign-up.

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Going forward, Polygon ID tools can  also be used to solve advanced use cases, such as:

• Anonymous voting. On-chain voting exposes the choices made by different public addresses. With Polygon ID, it would be possible to prove DAO membership with verifiable credentials (VCs) while making sure members don’t double vote.
• Social proof of influence or activity. Polygon ID can be used to help create a proof of influence issuer that issues VCs based on numbers of followers or number of posts across social platforms.
• Bot protection. It can be used to circumvent the bot problem by creating a decentralized verification system that provides individual VCs of liveliness & uniqueness that could be combined to prevent sybil attacks.

Recently, several major improvements have been made to improve upon the user experience of Polygon ID tools.

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Better composability

Using Polygon ID to represent identity-based information as verifiable credentials for dApps, users can prove access rights to dApp features without giving up their private data.

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With the Selective Disclosure feature, developers will be able to share selected fields from a credential, so that they can implement new use cases (i.e., proof of uniqueness sharing the biometric hash). The new JS SDK enables developers to create identity clients in multiple devices (web wallets, browser extensions, etc.) and includes credential issuance capabilities that will allow serverless issuance from local devices.

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New tools & improved interoperability with existing tools & projects

Recently, a number of updates were made to the Polygon ID tooling infrastructure for better composability and performance. A number of new tools have also been added to the arsenal for a great developer experience. For instance, Verifiable Credentials (VC) and Decentralized Identifiers (DID) W3C standards allow for improved interoperability of dApps.

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Promoting Open Dialog & Community Building 🎙️👩‍👩‍👦‍👦

9 cities across APAC. 9 different Guild Meetups. And DevX has only just begun!

Polygon Labs understands that it’s not enough to just build amazing protocols, or solve developer pain points, while existing in an echo chamber. Polygon Labs wants to go out there and get people to know about Polygon protocols, encourage a free flow of ideas and dialog, and get folks to use and build on top of the tech.

With DevX Global Tour, the intent is to organize events that bring together individuals and groups to work together on projects and get the conversations rolling on exciting technologies like Polygon ID and Polygon zkEVM.

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And, the APAC leg just concluded. 🍾

From Seoul to Kuala Lumpur, across ETH Tokyo and the Glitch Hackathon in Korea, the community has shown up in incredible strength and participated in talks and fun breakout sessions. Through mentorship, discourse has started from first principles and built up from there.

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But, there is a lot more coming ahead. The DevX Tour APAC Hackathon is all set to go, where developers can put their coding chops to the test and create solutions that power the next wave of innovation.

That makes us wonder — have you registered, yet? 🤔

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Removing barriers to innovation 🚧⛔

In conversations with developers, across meetups and Guild hangouts, a pain point always stands out.

For devs, it is often difficult to figure out the solution or service provider that could simplify their development process or supercharge their dApps. It’s a common dilemma because either they are too new to the space or they have a plethora of options to choose from and no way to know which solution suits them best. Either way, this prevents them from launching on time or at best, they launch suboptimal products when they do so.

On the flip side, the Solution Provider (SP) space is nascent and crowded and while most SPs provide strategic functionalities for dApps, it’s often a hit-and-miss.

To solve this problem of “discoverability”, the Polygon Solution Provider Network (SPN) provides a crypto-native, collaborative, discoverability platform for developers to easily search for, and compare and contrast SPs based on the provider’s offerings and code samples. In other words, create the one place, where they can access infra, middleware, developer tools and services to build on the blockchain.

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The v1 launch of Polygon SPN features Solution Providers for Polygon zkEVM, with the network expanding coverage to other protocols, including Polygon ID tools, Polygon PoS, and implementation partners for Polygon Supernets, and incorporating more feature sets to solve for discoverability.

Accelerating Developer to Founder Journeys ⛽🪄

There is no lack of developer talent or incredible entrepreneurial energy in the Polygon ecosystem. And, the community wants to cater to the future founders of Web3 from all regions of the world. And that’s why it’s important that the community help developers go from the idea stage or from a great proof of concept to raising money and building their dream projects.

The Techstars x Polygon strategic alliance is a step in this direction. After 13 weeks of the accelerator program, and at the heels of mentorship on product building, exploring markets, developing growth strategies, and fundraising, the first cohort of innovators signed up for the Demo Day on May 11.

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3 Projects on Polygon ID to watch out for 👀

WIW

WIW Protocol is a privacy-preserving identity protocol that focuses on user reputation by incorporating both off-chain and on-chain data. Through advanced analytics, WIW Protocol generates clear user abstractions based on historical data and transforms them into easily understandable WIW Badges. These badges serve as validations for users’ credentials and identities. By allowing users to curate and showcase their WIW Badges, the protocol ensures that individuals can prove their credentials without revealing their addresses, thus maintaining their privacy.

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Blockchain Lock

With a vision of providing safe access to assets to the world, the Blockchain Lock team is on a mission to "Unlock the World". Their main product is a smart lock which works with web3 technology. They offer both IoT devices as well as cloud access control systems. The system communicates with the web3 network where NFT, DID and Verifiable Credentials can be keys to unlock this network.

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Sedax

Sedax is an encrypted eKYC solution that allows users to perform KYC verification at private entities (like hotels) without exposing their ID credentials. Sedax eliminates the need for physical submission of gov-issued Identification documents to limit exposure and reduce leakage of data. 

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Conversations, Bounties & a Resource for your Playlist ➿

Infra Insider Series

📅 Every week at Polygon Devs

Are you eager to discover cutting-edge solutions and providers that can unlock tremendous value for you? Then, look no further than the Infra Insider Series on Twitter. Every week, Polygon Labs personnel engage in insightful conversations with SPs like @dynamic_xyz and @poko_app to unpack their value proposition and how they plan to unlock value for builders on Polygon.

🔗 Check out the episodes here: Infra Insider Episode 1, Infra Insider Episode 2

APAC Hackathon

📅 Registrations open until May 21st

The hackathon offers a total bounty of $125k+, including prizes from Polygon Labs and other sponsors. In addition, the top 5 winners get to showcase their projects at Polygon Connect and connect with founders, investors, and industry leaders, learn from the best in the industry, pitch their projects, and build relationships.

🔗 Register here: https://t.co/R0si3x8xxh

Let’s Build it

Want to learn how to build a social app in just 30 MINUTES?

Then, this tutorial needs no introduction!

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And, that’s a wrap for this edition of the Purple Press!

If you find something of value in these bi-weekly dispatches, make sure to share with your fellow builders… who knows, maybe this little action can lead us to the next Builder X.

Until then…

Happy Building! ⚒️🚀🌔

Subscribe to our newsletter, tune into the Polygon Labs Blog and check out our social channels to stay up to date on the latest from the Polygon ecosystem.

Together, we can build an equitable future for all through the mass adoption of Web3!

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