Crosshatch

Crosshatch aimed to be the identity layer for the hyper-personalized internet. Its core idea—let users bring their own data from Spotify, Fitbit, browsers, etc. to any app with a tap—was elegant. The manifesto writing and blog posts were thoughtful. But execution and timing matter. By mid-2025, when it shut down, it hadn't built enough integrations nor developer adoption to sustain itself. For a dev evaluating personalization infrastructure today, Crosshatch is a dead end. The tech isn't available, and the team has disbanded. The closest living concept for user-controlled data sharing is something like Solid Pods or user-managed access tokens via OAuth. If you need real personalization without building a data moat, consider using zero-party data collection apps (e.g., Jebbit) or privacy-compliant CDPs (e.g., mParticle) that put consent front and center. Crosshatch's archive is worth reading for inspiration—it nails the problem statement—but don't build on a dead platform.