Kitty Horlick, Director of Rarify Labs

In 1993, when the World Wide Web entered the public domain, “The New Yorker” published the now iconic comic “No One Knows You’re a Dog on the Internet.” , depicts a computer-savvy dog teaching his peers about the possibilities of online characters. This was quickly replicated as a reminder that in the anonymous channels of the internet, people may not be what they think they are.

Thanks to Dan Boneh of a16z who first quoted this robot-related comic on the a16z web3 podcast and inspired many of the ideas in this article

However, while internet users in the late 20th century struggled to be wary of cunning household pets, the most sinister threat facing users today is robots. The reason these autonomous programs are so dangerous is not because they represent that kind of one-on-one,

Personalized deception of traditional dog or human opponents, but due to their ability to reproduce indefinitely, knocked down the entire system in the process.

Take the 2016 US election as an example. At the time, speculation about Russia mobilizing robots to post a large amount of pro-Trump content on Twitter sparked widespread distrust of the democratic process. Although this scandal has never been fully resolved, it highlights how often robots are a concentrated force that enables a single entity (whether individual or organization) to form an army from scratch. With the development of artificial intelligence, this risk has continued to escalate over the years, and has evolved urgently since the generation model was released.

Blockchain as anti-bot infrastructure

Fortunately, preventing such attacks has always been at the heart of blockchain design. As a permissionless network, blockchain allows anyone to participate, including potential rivals who may wish to seize control of the network by masquerading as multiple participants. The 2009 Bitcoin white paper was a big surprise in computer science because the proof-of-work mechanism showed that it is possible to maintain an open network with an honest majority. If you want to impersonate a thousand people, then you have to do the work of a thousand people, and the cost will be a thousand times higher.

So it’s no surprise that the most promising protections against bots come from Web3. Proof of Humanity Solution (POH), also known as Proof of Humanity (POP), is of particular importance. These provide cryptographic proof that the user is a human rather than a robot, without divulging any other information about them. This emphasis on privacy distinguishes POH from real-world and Web2 identity solutions, where personal details such as addresses or dates of birth are often required.

From social media to DAO voting, or from managing airdrops to gated rewards programs, the scope and number of apps and platforms that can take advantage of POH solutions is limitless.

Vitalik’s opinion on PoH

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin in his recent blog post “What do I think about biological proof of personality traits? “POH solutions are “one of the most valuable small tools that people in the Ethereum community have been trying to build,” but they are also one of the “trickier” issues in the development process. This is because POH solutions need to not only maintain privacy while providing undisputed evidence, but also adhere to other Web3 principles, including user-based ownership and decentralization.

While a range of solutions already exist, the entire Web3 community is debating which one is the most powerful. To fully understand the subtle differences between the different methods, you can read Vitalik’s blog, where he compares biometrics and methods based on social graphs. Here’s a summary of his thoughts:

There is no ideal form of proof of personality traits. Instead, we have at least three different paradigms of approach, all with their own unique strengths and weaknesses.

To some extent, the POH solution is like an ice cream flavor. Personal taste is often the deciding factor. Biometric solutions like World Coin, which use futuristic, specialized hardware called “Orbs” to scan people’s irises, are too reminiscent of intrusive dystopian science fiction for some. However, the Orb only calculates and stores the hash value of the user’s iris scan, which means that even in the most unlikely worst case, the amount of personal personalized data that may be leaked is negligible. Thus, for other users, this guarantee of privacy makes Orb unusually non-intrusive.

Why POH solutions require aggregation

With so many trade-offs between different types of proof of humanity solutions, it’s unlikely that a single method of verification will become universal, and Web3 doesn’t want it to be. Because if a single method becomes too common and becomes the only way to access the services we know and love, users will be forced to choose between complicity or exclusion. Selectivity is the key to freedom and allows users to maintain control over their identity.

It is for this reason that Rarimo decided to bring together the four biggest identity providers in the field:Worldcoin, Unstoppable Domains, Gitcoin Passport, andCivic to become the world’s first proof of humanity plug-in for dApps. As a result, apps and platforms dedicated to protecting users from bots can automatically integrate with a range of providers without spending time and resources working with each provider, and allow users to choose the provider of their choice.

privacy

Once a provider is selected, users generate an on-chain proof to verify that they have met the requirements that only a real person can meet. The proof itself uses zero-knowledge (ZK) technology, which achieves this goal, even if one party (in this case the user) proves to the other party (the platform in this case) that a statement (human in this case) is a real reality without revealing additional information.

For example, if users choose Unstoppable Domains as their provider, Rarimo will enable these providers to generate proof of humanity, but the basis is that the complex steps required for ownership (including holding an account and paying from a bank account) cannot be performed by a bot, yet not even the domain name is revealed. If you’re interested in learning more about ZK technology, you can read about it in our July news article.

Why do we need multi-chain POH

As an interoperability protocol, Rarimo also makes all proofs instantly multi-chain proofs and usable across all networks. This allows any on-chain dApp and smart contract to interact with the plugin and ensures that users are free to use not only the provider of their choice, but also the network of their choice.

Just as having a variety of providers is important to the health of the digital identity ecosystem, so are all kinds of chains for the health of Web3. Because, chains also have trade-offs, which means no one person can provide all the infrastructure needed for the ecosystem. For example, the more decentralized a blockchain is, the less scalable it is. The more secure it is, the less smart contract features it has. By enabling users to seamlessly port between platforms or networks, Rarimo once again strives to promote diversity and maintain choice.

Behind the scenes, Rarimo made human proofs multi-chain proofs, synchronizing the on-chain state of every proof on all connected chains. This integration significantly reduces the cost for providers to face release status on multiple chains, as Rarimo supports on-demand publishing, thus avoiding unnecessary sync fees. Rarimo also has some additional cost reduction features, such as deal bundling.

Despite these complex mechanisms, Rarimo’s proof of humanity solution provides a seamless experience for users. With just a few extra clicks, users can select the identity provider they want to use, generate proof, and submit it to their platform.

You can watch this demo to understand this process.

Rarimo launches POH

The plugin was launched through integration with community building platform Galxe, where users complete Web3-related tasks in exchange for OAT (on-chain achievement tokens), and integrate with Decentraland through DCL Curations. DCL Curations is a virtual library dedicated to rewarding users for completing educational exercises. These integrations enable the platform to filter out bots and ensure that verified personnel are using its services.

The future of web3 and POH

Rarimo is very pleased with this solution, not only because aggregation is a core aspect of ensuring that human proof remains a good influence in Web3, but also because the need to differentiate between humans and machines will become increasingly urgent, and the proof-of-human solution is the path to new infrastructure.

For example, over the past year, a huge wave of music, poetry, and images generated by artificial intelligence has taken the internet by storm. Being able to distinguish what content is generated by humans and what is generated by machines plays an important role in combating disinformation.

Proof of humanity forms an early blueprint for potential solutions and provides a valuable example of how the traceability, anonymity, and security provided by blockchain technology can meet the challenges of artificial intelligence.

Generate your POH certificate

Galxe: http://gal.xyz/Rarimo-COTW

Decentraland: https://play.decentraland.org/?position=131%2C133& realm=heimdallr & island=peer-wc112y

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