$TALENT is the utility token for Talent Protocol. It is designed to incentivize ecosystem participants to create and curate verifiable reputation data.

In this blog post we take a deep dive into the $TALENT use cases we will build next.

Talent Protocol’s Vision

WHY: Make reputation visible online and verifiable onchain.

Help the world transition from self-reported resumes to verifiable reputation, so that the next generation of talent can find meaningful work and succeed in their careers.

HOW: Verified and curated data, open to all.

A professional reputation ecosystem, that only accepts verified data, filters out irrelevant signals, and makes it accessible under one aggregated user identity.

WHAT: The smart resume for the new internet.

Verifiable reputation, interoperable across the web, is a 10x improvement over today’s self-reported professional profiles, and can bring millions of builders onchain.

Read more about Talent Protocol’s core components here.

Token Utility

Dream, Build, Repeat

We’re builders, not researchers. We believe in learning through action, not long-term planning. The ideas we have for $TALENT’s utility are just that—ideas. They’re hypothesis we’ll test in real-world conditions, adapt, and refine as we go.

We’re not fans of long whitepapers, we prefer to focus on building practical, adaptable solutions that solve real problems for our community. No fluff, just progress.

Here are the 3 main token use cases we will be actively exploring:

1. Deposit or spend $TALENT to increase trust and visibility of talent.

2. Spend $TALENT to pay for data operations.

3. Earn $TALENT for adding verified data to the protocol.

To make it concrete, here’s a few examples of experiments we will build and test.

1. Increase trust and visibility.

• Deposit to boost Builder Score: users can deposit tokens to increase their Builder Score (up to 4 points) and access paid features for free.

• Pay for Talent Names: users can get a custom Talent username (name.tal.id), that is both a website and a wallet address, compatible with both DNS and ENS.

• Pay to Collect Builders: anyone will be able to invest in the next generation of builders. Scout hidden talent or collect your builder heroes. Past experiments include BUILD Nominations (2024), builderfi (2023) and social tokens (2021/22).

2. Pay for data operations.

• Mint your Talent Passport Onchain: users can put their Builder Score and Credentials onchain to access exclusive Builder Perks. More info here.

• Pay for the Talent API plans: devs can use $TALENT as a credit system for Talent API usage, and access data from millions of onchain users.

• Pay for Talent Pro plans: orgs and recruiters can use $TALENT as a credit system for Talent Pro usage, where they can identify top talent more effectively and reduce hiring risks.

3. Earn for adding verified data.

• Earn for referring quality users: a referral system that rewards both users and apps for bringing new users to the protocol (onchain). The amount they receive can vary according to Builder Score levels.

• Earn based on your popularity: revenue share with Talent, based on Talent Pro searches, paid by recruiters. This creates the incentives for talent to keep adding more verified personal data and keep it updated.

• Earn for building new credentials: devs can build their custom credentials, and receive a revenue share if their credentials are frequently used.

• Earn for verifying private data: small incentives for users to use zkTLS to verify private reputation data. zkTLS Credentials can be a huge unlock in terms of unique reputation data, but they require a bit more effort on the user side.

Our Experiment Plan*

• Q4 2024

  • Pay to mint your Talent Passport Onchain (users)

  • Deposit to boost Builder Score (users)

  • Earn for referring quality users (users, apps)

• Q1 2025

  • Pay for Talent Names (users)

  • Pay for the Talent API plans (devs)

  • Earn based on your popularity (users)

• Q2 2025

  • Pay to Collect Builders (users)

  • Pay for Talent Pro plans (orgs)

  • Earn for building new credentials (devs)

  • Earn for verifying private data (users)

*this plan is likely to change over time, as we get new information and learnings.

To learn more about the Talent Protocol ecosystem, check out our tokenomics and documentation.