What Is the Humanity Protocol? Verifying Humans in an AI World

In the Web2 world, the function of user verification is usually reliant on one of the major social networks today, such as Facebook, Google or Twitter, due to their large user bases and widespread reach. However, their dominant positions have also led to the centralization of an incredible amount of personal information, which poses a privacy concern due to the leverage they possess over the data of their billions of users. Moreover, such data is owned and often monetized by these corporations, sometimes at the expense of their users' interests.

In the Web3 space, verification is often done through wallet signatures. However, due to the anonymity of wallets, this poses a different risk to Web3 projects. A single user can create multiple fake personas and wallets to interact and manipulate a project, also known as a sybil attack. Beyond Web3, the proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) and its path towards artificial general intelligence (AGI) will continue to blur the lines of AI and human identities. Furthermore, social-economic policies like Universal Basic Income (UBI) face challenges in implementation due to the lack of proper identity technology. While many have tried, blockchains and projects still often face the challenge of identifying real and unique humans on the blockchain.

Enter Humanity Protocol.

What Is Humanity Protocol?

The chain is designed to have its own native anti-Sybil Proof-of-Humanity (PoH) consensus mechanism, to verify its users as unique humans in a decentralized manner, all while maintaining privacy of their users through zero-knowledge technology. Humanity Protocol’s PoH differentiates from current offerings in that it proves the user is a unique human being, and that the user is who they say they are. By leveraging palm recognition technology, decentralized data storage and zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs, Humanity Protocol is able to be Sybil-resistant as a network and even all the way down to the application level.

As such, Humanity Protocol effectively targets both of the core problems raised earlier in identifying unique humans through their PoH consensus mechanism, while at the same time ensuring that users maintain full control over their identity. This is known as the Humanity Protocol’s Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) framework.

How Does Humanity Protocol Work?

The first phase of the protocol involves creating the network of verified humans via human biometrics recognition. While many Web2 solutions have already implemented similar biometrics-based solutions to verify unique humans, the check must both verify that the biometric sample matches the profile (1-to-1 matching), while ensuring that the biometric sample is different from all other prior submitted samples in the system (1-to-N matching). Existing biometrics systems so far have not achieved high accuracy at the 1-to-N matching level. Additionally, from a privacy standpoint, more invasive identity verification methods, such as DNA collection, pose a significant privacy risk to the end user.

To get started with Proof of Humanity, the user has to first scan the palm of their hand using their own mobile device or the palm scan device. This image is then encrypted to create a biometric signature — this means no one has access to the image of the palm. This signature is then stored across Humanity Protocol’s network of zkProofers, decentralized nodes that are responsible for verifying whether a piece of information is correct via zkProofs.

Humanity Recognition Module

Humanity Protocol opted for palm recognition as a method that is non-intrusive while maintaining accuracy for 1-to-N matching, allowing it to meet the needs of a reliable and spoof-resistant network. In Phase 2 of the protocol, palm vein recognition will be implemented for improved verification.

In both palm recognition and palm vein recognition, the process is designed to be as accessible and inclusive to as many users as possible. With palm recognition, the process is to be completed via a smartphone application, while with palm vein recognition, a low-cost and easily accessible device is required to be connected to a smartphone for the imaging process.

Privacy-Preserving Data Storage and Use

Humanity Protocol takes several measures to ensure the privacy of user data and how such data is used.

Users are issued a verifiable credential (VC), which is tied to their wallet address, with the underlying metadata encrypted. The user holds control to the private key, which is then stored across a distributed network of zkProofers to ensure robust key recovery where needed, similar to how account abstraction enabled accounts are able to.

Identity Validators and zkProofers

The SSI framework is underpinned by two core elements in the Humanity Protocol, that is, the Identity Validators and the Proof of Humanity’s zkProofers.

Identity Validators are components within the Humanity Protocol network that verify whether information submitted by users and issue verifiable credentials (VCs) is valid against the claims of these credentials — for example, a University might issue Verifiable Credentials to students so that they can access on-campus services without having to disclose their personal details to third parties. zkProofers do not have access to users’ palm images or personal information at any point in this process.

In Phase 1, the Humanity Protocol Core Platform will take on the role of Identity Validators and verifying palm signatures. In this validation process, the platform checks that the signature belongs to a human and is unique from all other palm signatures in the protocol. The platform also issues zero-knowledge verifiable presentations (VPs) for customized queries by third-party applications. An example of a VP could be “whether the user is above 18 years old” or “whether the user resides in the USA”.

In Phase 2, accredited institutions will be appointed as Identity Validators by Humanity Protocol to verify specific user data to issue the respective VCs. For example, a university could verify a user’s educational background or a financial institution could verify a user’s KYC data. These Identity Validators will be required to stake Humanity Protocol’s token, HP, to align themselves with the protocol. More complex VPs will also be supported in this phase, such as those involving PII and non-PII data. Sharding will also be utilized to reduce concentration risks relating to storage of user data.

On the flip side, zkProofers serve as the other half of the equation, verifying a variety of VCs. This can come from interactions between users or with applications, where identity verification or a unique human status is required in the interaction. It is important to note that zkProofers interact with the network without having direct access to unencrypted user metadata. This design ensures privacy of user data and more importantly, enables a large network of zkProofers, which improves the decentralization of the entire protocol. To further decentralize the verification process, each verification requires the participation of multiple zkProofers, keeping the network secure while democratizing the verification process.

To incentivize operation of zkProofers, theirs operators are rewarded from two sources: the Identity Verification Pool, which pays out rewards in Humanity Protocol’s native token, $HP, as well as with 25% of the verification fees paid out from third-party applications and projects that utilize their services. This distribution of verification fees is designed to create a sustainable model for the network beyond distribution of the native token.

Conclusion

In today's digital world that prefers anonymity, Humanity Protocol offers a solution for verifying real people online while protecting their privacy. It allows users to control their personal data while letting apps and websites confirm they're interacting with actual humans.

This way of proving someone is human could change how online services deal with users and prevent fake accounts. This technology could be useful in many areas, such as proving ownership of real-world assets online, improving how decentralized organizations make decisions, verifying education and qualifications, ensuring fair distribution of digital rewards, and preventing bots from manipulating online systems.

The potential applications of Humanity Protocol are far-reaching and could significantly impact how we interact and transact in the digital sphere.