"Backstage at the TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 conference on Wednesday, Rose explained that he sees the future of social as being more focused on protected online spaces and "micro communities of trusted users." "I just have to imagine that, as the cost to deploy agents drops to next to nothing, we're just gonna see...bots act as though they're humans," he said. "So, small trusted communities, proof of heartbeat - there's an actual human on the other end...is important.""
"Not everyone online will feel comfortable doing something like that to access an online social community, of course. That's why Digg is looking to use newer technology, like a ZK proof (ZKP) to verify people using its platform in the future. Says Rose, the ZKP is a "fancy piece of math" which doesn't expose who someone is, but can verify something essential that would be important for their participation in an online community."
The dead internet theory claims much of the internet is populated by bots rather than humans. Alexis Ohanian and Kevin Rose partnered to redesign social community software in anticipation of indistinguishable bots. The pair reacquired Digg assets and plan to build protected online spaces and micro-communities of trusted users. Verification of human participants is considered crucial, with ideas like proof of heartbeat to confirm a real person. Current verification methods include facial recognition, ID uploads, or small credit-card payments, which can feel invasive. Digg intends to explore zero-knowledge proofs to verify essential participant attributes without revealing identities.
Read at TechCrunch
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]