Fathom¶
Warning
Fathom is still in the early stages of development. Here there be dragons. It’s a great time to get involved though!
Fathom is a cryptoeconomic protocol for creating globally recognized credentials. It is implemented in a collection of smart contracts in Solidity, and deployed to the Ethereum blockchain.
Fathom aims to enable a new open learning ecosystem. On top of it you can create new structures for learning: things like schools, tutoring systems, or peer-to-peer learning networks.
Note
Cryptoeconomics is a relatively new term and field. If you want to go deeper down the rabbit hole, check out awesome-cryptoeconomics from L4.
Why decentralized credentials?¶
Today most reputable credentials are issued by large institutions. This has led to a credentialing system that is inaccessible to many, and that is slow to adapt to changing realities. In this system, most can only communicate a small part of their global skillset.
With fathom, it is possible to create credentials that capture any kind of knowledge or skill. Moreover, conceiving of and defining credentials is no longer the exclusive domain of centralized entities. Rather, it is something anyone can participate in.
As well, the process of earning credentials is less exclusionary and more meaningful. The fathom protocol defines an assessment-game in which qualified assessors are economically incentivized to come to a truthful evaluatation of an applicant’s skill.
As such, any community in any field can create its own credentials and use them to self-organize. Its members are empowered to communicate these skills and others to the outside world.