Content editor: Yao Erliu
Content collation: Yao Erliu
Why do we need human verification?
In the crypto market, Sybil attacks, deep fakes, and fraud have always been the biggest problems plaguing the Web3 world, and identity verification issues are particularly prominent. The data collected by most projects is very valuable. For commercialization, this can directly affect the feasibility of the project's future financing ceiling; for users, this is undoubtedly one of the most important indicators that Web3 users pay attention to and even conduct research on.
Human validators are not new. In crypto projects, verifying user uniqueness is something that almost all projects have to do. This can effectively improve user authenticity and highly implement the efficiency of application popularization. On the other hand, it can increase the number of dispersed addresses held by the actual controllers for the tokens issued after going online.
The most obvious example is the recent witch mechanism of LayerZero, which further illustrates how great the current market demand is for the authenticity of user identities, and even goes to all costs to prevent the rampant disaster of hairy studios.
Of course, this is not aimed at more real users. Most projects even propose to report address witches and encourage retail investors to provide evidence to solve the problem of rampant studios. This is a good thing for retail investors.
The emergence of the AI sector has also added epic difficulty to the project owners. The well-known crypto-money studios have almost no less than 1,000 addresses to get airdrops, which is a headache for any project owner. With the increasing popularity of the AI sector, it is more difficult for many projects to identify whether the actual controller of the address is multiple or a single person. In this case, the necessity of Humanity Protocol has emerged.
There are many other excellent projects doing the same thing as Humanity Protocol, including WorldCoin, ENS, SPACE ID, D.id, Galex, etc. Humanity Protocol will become one of the largest financing projects in the Web3ID identity authentication sector, and its valuation will directly jump to the second place!
What is the Humanity Protocol?
Humanity Protocol is a Sybil-resistant blockchain network that provides developers with a unique human identity verification mechanism and gives users full ownership of their data and identity. The protocol uses palm recognition technology as a less invasive authentication alternative to methods such as iris scanning and can be easily accessed via a smartphone to establish proof of humanity in Web3 applications.
The Humanity Protocol Team
Humanity Protocol was founded by tech entrepreneur Terence Kwok and is guided by the Founding Humans Board, which includes Animoca Brands co-founder and executive chairman Yat Siu and Polygon Labs co-founder Sandeep Nailwal.
Palm Scanning Humanity VS Iris Scanning WorldCoin
This revolutionary protocol uses cutting-edge palm recognition technology as a less invasive authentication alternative to methods like iris scanning, and can be easily accessed via a smartphone to establish proof of humanity in Web3 applications.
Existing proof-of-identity technologies can be invasive, complex, or cumbersome. By leveraging cutting-edge technology in non-invasive biometrics at the core of a proof-of-humanity consensus mechanism, Humanity Protocol is building a user-centric ecosystem that can empower millions of people with a truly decentralized verifiable digital identity solution that respects the principles of true digital ownership, providing better fairness and inclusion for all participants in the process.
Not only is Humanity Protocol truly resistant to Sybil attacks, but it also enables verifiable credentials to be natively integrated into a decentralized network of validator nodes, Humanity Protocol lays the foundation for a wide variety of blockchains and real-world applications to be built on top of it.
Humanity palm scanning technology
The Human Institute, in partnership with Polygon Labs and Animoca Brands, has launched an innovative “Proof of Humanity” protocol based on unique palm scanning technology. The development of a new zero-knowledge proof Ethereum Virtual Machine (zKEVM) blockchain ensures that the user’s identity can be verified without resorting to cumbersome methods such as iris scanning.
This new technology of human verification is similar to Sam Altman’s Worldcoin (WLD). The only difference is that unlike Worldcoin, which scans a human palm, Worldcoin uses a human iris for verification.
Why use palm print scanning instead of fingerprint scanning?
Palmprints provide greater coverage, which improves the accuracy and consistency of identity verification. This greater precision minimizes the occurrence of false positives and false negatives, thereby enhancing overall security and user confidence.
As biometric technology advances, concerns about spoofing techniques used by malicious actors grow. While fingerprint scanners have made great strides in anti-spoofing measures, palm scanning inherently poses a greater challenge to would-be fraudsters.
In addition to security considerations, adopting palm scanning can also bring practical benefits in terms of accessibility and user experience. Unlike fingerprint scanners, which may require precise alignment and orientation, palm scanners provide greater flexibility in positioning, facilitating a smoother and more intuitive authentication process. This user-friendly approach not only enhances convenience, but also encourages wider acceptance and adoption of biometrics in a variety of applications.
While fingerprints have long been the reigning champion of biometric authentication, the emergence of palm scanning offers a compelling alternative with clear advantages in security, accuracy, and user experience. By leveraging the unique capabilities of our palms, organizations can boost their digital defenses and provide users with a strong and reliable means of authentication.
PoH blockchain with proof of humanity mechanism
The concept of Proof of Humanity (PoH) has emerged as a powerful mechanism that can serve as a fundamental building block for establishing trust in various online environments, from social media platforms to financial transactions, etc. The core Proof of Humanity (PoH) mechanism consists of two stages to address the complexity of identity verification.
Phase 1: Building the Human Layer of Web3
Humanity Protocol leverages the power of palm print recognition technology to lay the foundation for a truly unique and secure identity verification process. This phase involves onboarding our growing waitlist to our testnet platform to begin using PoH.
By introducing palm print recognition, while biometric authentication is not a new concept, the first phase of the PoH mechanism goes a step further and addresses the challenge of verifying human uniqueness at scale.
Unlike traditional biometric authentication systems that rely on one-to-one matching, the first phase of PoH addresses the critical need for one-to-many matching. This ensures that each person’s biometric signature is not only similar to their own profile, but also different from all other profiles in the vast network.
Striking a delicate balance between accuracy, reliability, and inclusivity, Phase 1 lays the foundation for an identity verification approach.
Phase 2: Manual Verification
The Humanity Protocol introduces a sophisticated identity verification consensus mechanism to ensure the integrity and reliability of the verification process, especially in situations where multiple authenticators are able to verify the same user claims (such as the user’s age or location).
This consensus mechanism involves a hybrid on-chain and off-chain approach, with PoH’s identity verification parties collaborating to generate virtual proof of identity or even proof of asset ownership that complies with real-world KYC standards.
The authenticator conducts the verification process off-chain, using its own data to verify the user’s claims. Once the verification process is complete, the authenticator uploads the standardized verification results to the chain without revealing the details of the verification process.
This approach not only enhances security by protecting sensitive personal information, but also ensures compliance with evolving regulatory requirements while protecting users from the potential threat of counterfeit technology.
By combining the accessibility of palmprint recognition with the precision of PoH verification systems, this two-stage approach achieves levels of accuracy and reliability previously thought unattainable.
At the same time, compared with WorldCoin's iris recognition, this method has an additional off-chain link, and the upper limit of what governments can accept is higher than WorldCoin's pure on-chain method.
What is Deepfake?
Deepfakes are synthetic media generated using artificial intelligence techniques, typically involving superimposing existing images and videos onto other bodies, or altering them in subtle but convincing ways.
Deepfake dangerous behavior
In layman's terms, it is the use of AI intelligent algorithms to regenerate portrait videos and images. This technology is currently widely used in short video presentations such as Douyin. The danger lies in its authenticity identification. Once a fraud team uses this technology, it may increase the degree of trust in the video, leading to dangerous behaviors such as being deceived.
Beyond that, deep fakes have the power to disrupt larger financial markets, damage personal and professional relationships, and even incite dangerous behavior such as violence. With the ability to create convincing false audio and video recordings of anything anyone said or did, the line between fact and fiction is becoming increasingly blurred.
This makes detecting deepfakes a huge challenge, requiring tools that can keep up with rapidly evolving AI technology.
Humanity’s solution
The Humanity Protocol offers a promising solution. Designed to verify that real individuals, rather than robots or automated systems, the Proof of Humanity solution offers a compelling approach to addressing this problem.
Humanity Protocol’s Proof-of-Humanity consensus mechanism is Sybil-resistant at both the network and application levels, ensuring the uniqueness of user identities in decentralized systems. This maintains the integrity of online and offline environments by reducing the risk of identity fraud and Sybil attacks. As a result, the protocol promotes trust and credibility in decentralized networks and the real world.
Humanity Protocol Solution
Proof of Humanity (PoH) allows access to services and buildings, proves ownership of real-world assets to reflect the complexity and nuance of our daily lives, and prevents the proliferation of robots in our communities.
To achieve this, it is necessary to promote this function through distributed node verification unique to Web3, which plays a vital role in verifying user identity in the decentralized ecosystem and ensuring the integrity of interactions between users, authenticators, and third-party dApps.
An important component of Humanity Protocol’s zkEVM Layer 2 network, responsible for receiving, processing, and verifying various Verifiable Credentials (VCs) or privacy-focused zero-knowledge Verifiable Demonstrations (VPs).
The validator nodes are designed with privacy in mind, utilizing zero-knowledge proofs to interact with the network without direct access to user information. This approach protects user privacy while enhancing decentralization and community participation in the PoH validation process.
Humanity Protocol Investor Lineup
Humanity Protocol has completed 2 financing events so far, with a total financing amount of up to US$31.5 million. According to the latest financing event, its value is as high as US$1 billion.
The first financing event occurred in the seed pre financing on February 28, 2024. This financing completed US$1.5 million, led by Hashed, CMCC, Cypher Capital, Foresight Ventures and Mechanism Capital, and participated in by MH Ventures, NGC Ventures, HashKey Capital, Mask Network, Cogitent Ventures, LongHash Ventures, CSP DAO, TRGC, Veris Ventures, BlackDragon, 300DAO, Wise3 Ventures, Mythos, Vision Capital, X Ventures, Yat Siu, Sandeep Nailwal, etc., involving a total of 20 institutions.
The second financing event occurred in the seed round of financing on May 15, 2024. This financing completed US$30 million, led by Kingsway Capital, and participated by Animoca Brands, Blockchain.com, and Shima Capital. The valuation of this round of financing event was as high as US$1 billion.
The startup competes with Worldcoin, a rival service that has faced legal challenges in several regions.
DID decentralized identity authentication section
DID identity authentication is not a brand new concept. It was introduced as early as two years ago when Vitalik launched Ethereum's ENS domain name service, and various solutions were introduced to verify the uniqueness of users.
What followed were basic projects for identity verification such as SPACE ID, Litentry, KaratDAO, Litentry, and later task platforms such as Galex, Carv, RabbitHole, etc. that confirmed the authenticity of users through habits, time, and interaction methods. The DID decentralized identity authentication track has characteristics different from other sectors.
The continuation of the proof of humanity is the rise of World Coin, another iris-verified company founded by OpenAI founder Sam atman. It uses the human retinal iris as a unique identifier to record information, uploads it to the blockchain, and saves the information to record the features for proof. However, this move will inevitably lead to governments having to take necessary measures to protect their citizens' information, which will inevitably lead to a huge challenge in the popularity of WorldCoin.
On the other hand, the mechanism of Humanity Protocol can better circumvent regulatory restrictions. Humanity Protocol allows off-chain verification to store user information, which delegates the power to store user information to the government or enterprises to circumvent these restrictions.
This is why the startup Humanity Protocol is able to directly compete with the capital of WorldCoin, an AI and bioinformatics giant. It is also the technological war driven by the capital of major companies and institutions in the AI and bioinformatics sectors.