Konnect: Why Proof-of-Personhood is so Important？
In 1993, when the World Wide Web was released into the public domain, the New Yorker published the now iconic cartoon ‘On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.’ This sketch of a computer-savvy canine educating his companion on the possibilities of online personas was rapidly reproduced as a warning that in the faceless corridors of the internet, people may not be who they say they are.
Thanks to A16z’s Dan Boneh who first referenced this cartoon in relation to bots during an a16z web3 podcast and inspired many of the ideas in this blog post
But while the internet users of the late twentieth century fought to stay vigilant against tricksy household pets, the most pernicious threat facing today’s users is bots. These autonomous programs are so dangerous not because they represent the kind of one-on-one, personalized deception of the traditional dog or human adversary, but because they have the ability to endlessly replicate, overwhelming entire systems in the process.
Take, for instance, the 2016 US election where speculation that Russia mobilized bots to flood Twitter with pro-Trump content triggered widespread distrust in democratic processes. Though never fully resolved, the scandal highlighted how bots are often a centralizing force, enabling a single entity, be it an individual or an organization, to raise armies from dust. With the growth of AI, this risk has only escalated over the years, reaching a recent, urgent crescendo following the release of generative models.
Blockchain as Anti-bot Infrastructure
Thankfully, preventing such attacks has always been at the heart of blockchain design. As permissionless networks, blockchains allow anyone to participate, including possible adversaries who might hope to seize control of a network by masquerading as multiple participants. The 2009 Bitcoin whitepaper was such a revelation in computer science because the Proof-of-Work mechanism showed that it was possible to maintain an open network with an honest majority. If you want to masquerade as a thousand people, you have to do the work of a thousand people, and the cost will be a thousand times higher.
It is no surprise then that the most promising protections against bots are arising from Web3. Of particular importance are Proof-of-Personhood (POP). These provide cryptographic proofs that a user is a human and not a bot without revealing any additional information about them. This emphasis on privacy distinguishes POP from the identity solutions of the real-world and Web2 where personal details such as addresses or dates of birth are typically required.
From social media to DAO voting, or from managing air-drops to gating reward programs, the range and number of applications and platforms that could make use of the POP solution is limitless.
Vitalik on POP
In his recent blog post ‘What do I think about biometric proof of personhood?’, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin wrote that POP solutions are ‘one of the most valuable gadgets that people in the Ethereum community have been trying to build,’ but that they are also ‘one of the trickier’ ones to develop. This is because POP solutions not only need to provide incontestable proof while maintaining privacy, but also uphold additional Web3 principles including user-based ownership, and decentralization.
Already a range of solutions exist, but there is debate throughout the Web3 community about which are the most robust. To get a full sense of the nuances in variations between different approaches, we recommend reading Vitalik’s blog, where he compares biometric and social-graph-based methods, but to summarize his thinking:
There is no ideal form of proof of personhood. Instead, we have at least three different paradigms of approaches that all have their own unique strengths and weaknesses.
To some extent POP solutions are ice cream flavors; personal taste is often a determining factor. Biometric solutions like Worldcoin which uses spherical, futuristic-looking pieces of specialized hardware named ‘Orbs’ to scan people’s irises are simply too redolent of invasive dystopian sci-fi for some. Yet, the orb computes and stores only a hash of users’ iris scans meaning that even in highly improbable, worst-case scenarios, the amount of personalized data about a person that could be leaked is negligible. So, for other users, this kind of privacy guarantee makes the Orb remarkably non-invasive.
POP on Konnect
To assess global Proof of Personhood mechanisms, several key requirements emerge. It should prioritize inclusivity, scalability, and be fraud-resistant to ensure access for all while preventing duplicate registrations. The POP must be person-bound, hard to sell or lose, and authentication-friendly. Decentralization is vital for resilience, and privacy must be maintained, granting users control over their data.
Features of Konnect’s POP
- Ensure you’re human and unique: Prove that you’re a real and unique person via privacy-first biometric ways.
- Look at face: Use facial verification to confirm your human identity without compromising privacy.
- Protect your privacy: Never store your photos. ZKP, FHE and other advanced technologies are used to protect privacy.
The Future of Web3 and POP
The need to distinguish humans from machines is growing while theProof-of-Personhood solutions are serving as important stepping stones for next-gen infrastructure.
In the past year, for instance, great glimmering tidal waves of AI-generated music, poetry and imagery have flooded intothe internet. Therefore, distinguishing contents generated by humans from those by machines is vital in the battle against disinformation.
Proof-of-Personhood forms an early blueprint for possible solutions and presents an invaluable example of the way that the traceability, anonymity, and security provided by blockchain technology can counteract the challenges of AI.
By solving Proof-of-Personhood at scale with advanced zero-knowledge proofs, Konnect is posied to become a drving force in buiding a more authentic and sercure comunity and making Web3 more accessible in people’s social life.
About Konnect
Konnect is an all-in-one portal & solution for Web3 social life with a mission to bring Web3 inclusion to every individual across the globe. It aims to become the largest digital identity and social network owned by everyone, regardless of their location, income, or social status. It consists of Konect ID (KID), a privacy-first digital identity system built on proof of personhood, and Konnect App, a comunity-driven one-stop portal to Web3 as well as KKcoin, the token available to every individual simply for being human
Get a sneak peek at beta version of Konnect
