Distinguishing between humans and machines online has become more important than ever. Over the past years, the digital world has seen a proliferation of AI-fueled deepfake impersonations, bots and Sybil attacks, in which a single entity creates many false identities to gain influence.
An increasing number of companies are trying to come up with solutions relying on blockchain technology. One of the more well-known projects is World Network, previously known as Worldcoin, which scans irises to confirm their users are human. But the space is seeing more and more competitors relying on biometrics to prove people are real – including Humanity Protocol.
“There are definitely a bunch of companies that are trying to solve the whole Proof of Personhood problem,” the company’s founder Terence Kwok told Biometric Update in an interview earlier this month. “We’re lucky to be one of the few that have started launching, building a user base and joined the market.”
The company launched a testnet in October, allowing users and developers to get their first taste of the platform and receive some free cryptocurrency. The project has so far signed up over a million people – moving quickly to catch up with World Network which currently has 15 million users, including 7 million verified through its Orb iris-scanning technology.
For now, the company is allowing mobile app pre-enrollment with a phone camera that captures palm prints. The full enrolment will involve scanning both palm prints and palm veins using specialized devices to avoid faking or spoofing.
The Hong Kong-based firm is working with several manufacturers on palm-scanning hardware but the industrial design and the electrical engineering is done in-house, adds Kwok. The founder has told the media that its first batch of devices should start rolling out between December and February. In 2025, the company plans to launch a personal enrolment device that can be plugged into a smartphone.
“Everything is in-house built, from the app all the way to the algorithms on the back for biometrics, as well as the encryption,” says Kwok.
The launch of the mainnet is expected over the next couple of months while Humanity Protocol is also planning to release its own app. Meanwhile, Humanity Protocol is also developing different use cases through partnerships with other companies, both the crypto space and the traditional world, according to Kwok.
“In the blockchain world, Proof of Personhood is super important,” he says.
Proof of Personhood (PoP), sometimes called Proof of Humanity (PoH), ensures that users are real human beings through identity verification that doesn’t rely on a central authority. Verifying that someone is a real person prevents abusing online systems. But Humanity Protocol has plans that go beyond and it’s looking to bring its product to the offline space.
“We’re building a full credential ecosystem,” says Kwok. “So it’s not just proof of person, it’s also potentially allowing people to prove their age, prove their nationality, prove where they went to school, where they work.”
The company has some serious names behind it. The platform was co-created by the co-founder of blockchain company Polygon Labs, Sandeep Nailwal, and Yat Siu, the founder of Hong Kong’s unicorn Animoca Brands. The company, which offers digital property rights to video gamers through blockchain and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), has also been developing decentralized digital IDs and Kwok is hoping to become a part of their infrastructure.
Kwok himself founded the first unicorn from Hong Kong, a tourism startup called Tink Labs which eventually went bankrupt. The startup was funded by backers such as Softbank and Sinovation Ventures, a VC fund headed by the former chief of Google China, Kaifu Lee.
The Humanity Protocol project, which debuted in February this year, announced a valuation of US$1 billion in May. But Humanity Protocol still has some catching up to do with the likes of World Network.
Kwok says he doesn’t necessarily view other Proof-of-Personhood projects as competitors: Multiple systems can exist for different use cases, he notes. Companies like his owe a lot to World Network for paving the way and educating regulators worldwide about privacy-preserving self-sovereign identity.
“I think in a lot of markets, this is welcomed,” says Kwok. “And then some of the other places, we’ll have to engage and figure out how to expand.”
Article Topics
biometrics | blockchain | digital identity | Humanity Protocol | identity verification | palm biometrics | palm prints | palm vein authentication | proof of personhood | self-sovereign identity
