the credential layer for the 92 percent of work linkedin was never built for
a plumber with 600 documented installs. a nurse with 7 years of patient outcomes. a designer who reached 4 million users. none of them has a portable credential. linkedin gives them a title and nothing else.
the 92 percent number is the part nobody talks about. linkedin has 1 billion users but only 8 percent of the working world has a meaningful profile on it. plumbers do not work there. nurses do not work there. drivers do not work there. the other 92 percent has always been invisible.
the structural reason linkedin works for the 8 and fails for the 92 is the credential format. it captures a title and a list. it does not capture which install, which patient, which deploy. and it does not capture who signed off on it. no signer means no real credential.
a real credential has four rows. the work, one sentence in plain language. the artifact, the photo or the link. the peer signature, one verified colleague. the customer signature, the actual buyer or user.
the cost-of-credential argument matters here. a linkedin endorsement costs the signer nothing. so it signals nothing. a tam signature costs the signer their public reputation if the work was a lie. so it signals everything. cheap credentials are worthless credentials.
this is what we shipped at tam network. four rows per receipt. real signatures. portable forever. built for the 92 percent first. 22 humans tested v1. v2 launches aug 12.
three asks for anyone reading this. follow the build at thetamnetwork.com. tag one plumber, nurse, or electrician who deserves a portable record. bookmark this thread, the receipt thesis goes live aug 12.
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Genuinely curious about the go-to-market piece here. The credential format is cleaner, and I see the portability appeal. But LinkedIn's Experience + Recommendations already lets peers sign off on work (same verification mechanism).
So the real question: where do you see this living in the 92%'s workflow? A plumber gets found on Google Maps or Yelp. A nurse gets hired through hospital networks. Are you building TAM as a discovery platform where customers actually search for them? Or is the receipt meant to be a portable document they attach to their application somewhere else?
Because if it's the latter - just a better credential format they can download and attach - sounds like a "nice-to-have" and not really a "must-have". And it doesn't solve why they're not discoverable in the first place.