What is Humanity Protocol (H)?

Deep Dive

1. Purpose & Value Proposition

Humanity Protocol tackles Sybil attacks (fake identities) in Web3 by issuing Human IDs – self-sovereign credentials that verify users are unique humans without exposing personal data. Unlike centralized models, it uses palm-scan biometrics processed into irreversible hashes, avoiding raw data storage (Humanity Protocol Gitbook). This enables apps to confirm attributes like age or citizenship via zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs), balancing privacy with compliance.

2. Technology & Architecture

Built as a zkEVM Layer-2 on Ethereum, the protocol uses:
- zkProofer Nodes: Generate proofs for identity claims.
- Identity Validators: Stake $H to verify proofs and secure the network.
Palm scans are locally processed on users’ devices, and liveness detection ensures scans aren’t spoofed. This architecture avoids single points of failure while enabling interoperability with other chains and real-world credentials (Millionero Magazine).

3. Key Differentiators

• Privacy Over Biometrics: Contrasts with Worldcoin’s iris scans by using palm-based verification and ZKPs.
• Modular Design: Supports upgrades for new credential types (e.g., financial, educational) and integrations with partners like Mastercard.
• Fairdrop Distribution: Initial $H tokens were airdropped only to verified humans to deter bots.

Conclusion

Humanity Protocol reimagines digital identity as a user-owned, privacy-preserving layer for Web3, addressing bot infiltration while enabling trustless verification. With biometrics secured by cryptography and a tokenomics model incentivizing decentralized participation, its success hinges on adoption by developers needing Sybil resistance. Can it balance scalability with the ethical handling of biometric data as regulatory scrutiny intensifies?