Attending the 2025 Global Digital Collaboration (GDC) Conference in Geneva, Switzerland was a powerful opportunity to connect technical research with global digital governance efforts. Representing the Applied Social Media Lab, I co-led a session with the Project Liberty Institute focused on the intersection of decentralized identity, governance, and privacy-preserving technologies.
Our session brought together technical and governance perspectives. Project Liberty explored participatory governance models for protocols like DSNP, while I contributed an engineering lens—highlighting our Advanced Digital Identity work on age verification using zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) and the importance of protocol interoperability across decentralized platforms.
Throughout the convening, I engaged with leaders from Google, Dyne.org, the OpenWallet Foundation, and the Web3 Foundation. A highlight was the release of Google’s Longfellow ZKP library, which we discussed in the context of supporting custom credentials and iOS compatibility.
GDC underscored the need to align open-source innovation with inclusive governance structures. It amplified the visibility of the Lab’s work and opened pathways for future collaboration—especially in spaces where digital identity, safety, and autonomy converge.
