Building Credit Systems for the Gig Economy

Proving earnings privately

Elo Mukoro was lead developer relations at the Ethereum Foundation's privacy and scaling explorations team, working on zero-knowledge proofs, MPC and FHE. Cr3dentials uses ZK-TLS verification to pull earning data from any HTTPS platform without the company ever seeing it, covering platforms such as Uber, Bolt, TikTok, OnlyFans and X.

Mukoro says Cr3dentials only sees a few selected values during underwriting, while neobank partners handle KYC on their users.

First live customer

Kasi Money uses Cr3dentials for Uber and Bolt verifications at 1,500 new users a week. Mukoro says Kasi would rather pay for this data than rely on its direct partnership with Bolt, because it is more real time and gives richer data on drivers.

What neobanks are missing

According to Elo Mukoro, crypto neobanks that want to add credit usually lack four things: a capital partner, licenses to lend in a compliant way, an understanding of where users earn, and a way to get money back. Cr3dentials says it will soon announce a credit facility that will extend capital to neobanks, and that facility currently works in the US and Africa.

For collections, borrowers switch their payout account to the neobank, so repayment comes straight from the platform rather than through a direct debit.

Competition and focus

Elo Mukoro names Argyle, Plaid and Reclaim as competitors that each cover parts of the stack, but says he has not seen anyone combine ZK-TLS verification, embedded financing and a focus on gig workers. The target is creatives, gig workers and freelancers whose work has no W-2, a group he calls underserved.