Background of the project
HUMANODE is inspired by the founding concept of blockchain, which is a decentralized, open, fair and transparent network where everyone can participate and contribute.
However, both modern PoW and PoS protocols have an inherent problem of the rich getting richer, leading to the concentration of power and resources and the formation of validator oligarchies and miner cartels, thus damaging the security and democracy of the blockchain. .
For example, according to Bitnodes, there are only 11,000 Bitcoin nodes in the world as of November 20, 2023, while according to Ethernodes, there are only 14,000 Ethereum nodes in the world as of November 20, 2023. The distribution of these nodes is also uneven, with most of them concentrated in North America and Europe, while there are relatively few in regions such as Asia and Africa. This means that the control and income rights of the blockchain network are not truly dispersed to everyone in the world, but are monopolized by a small number of institutions and individuals.
The emergence of HUMANODE is to solve this problem. It uses biometric technology to ensure that behind each node is a real and unique living human being, rather than any form of machine or software.
HUMANODE believes that all humans are equal, so all nodes are also equal in terms of fee distribution, verification and voting.
HUMANODE's slogan is "1 Human = 1 Node = 1 Vote", that is, each person can only deploy one node, and each node has only one vote of power . In this way, HUMANODE can achieve a truly decentralized, democratic, and Sybil-resistant blockchain network where everyone can participate and benefit fairly.
Project Introduction
HUMANODE is developed based on the Substrate framework, a blockchain development framework that enables customized, scalable and interoperable blockchain networks. HUMANODE takes advantage of Substrate's flexibility and modularity, and can choose different consensus algorithms, smart contract layers, governance models, etc. according to different scenarios and needs.
The core technology of HUMANODE is private decentralized biometric technology, which includes the following aspects:
Private Biometric Search and Matching: HUMANODE uses an artificial intelligence that analyzes faces to prove that a person is unique without revealing any personal information. HUMANODE does not store any identifiable biometric data, but instead converts it into an irreversible hash value, which is then compared to detect duplicate or similar faces. In this way, HUMANODE can protect the privacy and security of users while ensuring the uniqueness of the network.
Decentralized auditable liveness detection: HUMANODE uses more than 60 artificial intelligence modules to prove that the person in front of the camera is a real, living human being and not any form of photo, mask or deepfake. HUMANODE will randomly ask different actions or questions to the user, require the user to respond within a specified time, and then use artificial intelligence to determine the user's liveness. In this way, HUMANODE can prevent any form of deception and attacks while ensuring network activity.
EVM compatible smart contract layer: HUMANODE supports the use of the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) to create and execute smart contracts. This means that HUMANODE is compatible with the Ethereum ecosystem, allowing developers to easily deploy and run various decentralized applications (DApps) on HUMANODE. HUMANODE also provides some special smart contracts, such as the Human Verification Contract, which allows any DApp or platform to use HUMANODE's biometric technology to verify the user's human identity.
Highlights
The highlights of HUMANODE mainly include the following aspects:
True decentralization: HUMANODE is a network composed of millions of human nodes, each node is equal, without any form of centralization or oligarchy. HUMANODE does not rely on any form of hardware or capital, but on the existence and uniqueness of humans, thus achieving true decentralization.
High degree of democracy: HUMANODE is a network governed by human nodes. Each node has one vote, without any form of imbalance of power or interest. HUMANODE uses a decentralized decision-making system called Vortex, which allows effective and transparent communication and collaboration between nodes, thereby achieving a high degree of democracy.
Powerful anti-witch attack capability: HUMANODE is a network that prevents witch attacks through private decentralized biometric technology. Each node must prove its human identity through face recognition and liveness detection, without any form of Machines or software can join or affect a network1. HUMANODE uses advanced artificial intelligence technology to resist any form of deception and attack, thereby achieving strong resistance to witch attacks.
BotBasher: Humanode's BotBasher is a Discord tool that allows you to eliminate bots by biometrically authenticating your users. By adding BotBasher to your server and linking it to a special role, you can ensure that users who receive this role are unique, living individuals. The user's account is authenticated within the context of the entire Discord, which means that if BotBasher is installed on another server, the user will automatically be authenticated there as well.
Currently, 367 communities have adopted BotBasher, and the number of bioauthorizations has reached 260,490. Including well-known projects and exchanges such as: SEI, Omni Network, Mantle Network, BitMart Fan Community.
Example
The use cases of HUMANODE mainly include, but are not limited to, the following aspects:
Sybil-resistant on-chain biometrics
HUMANODE can provide Sybil attack-resistant private on-chain biometrics for any Web3 project that needs to verify the user's human identity, such as social networks, DAOs, NFTs, DeFi, etc.
HUMANODE allows these projects to use the Human Verification Contract to access HUMANODE's biometric technology, thereby ensuring that each user is a real and unique living human being, rather than any form of machine or software.
In this way, these projects can avoid all forms of fraud, abuse, manipulation, etc. For example, HUMANODE can help social network platforms achieve real user interaction and avoid interference from zombie fans and trolls; HUMANODE can help DAO platforms achieve fair governance and avoid manipulation and cheating by a few people; HUMANODE can help NFT platforms achieve unique creations , to avoid the problems of copying and piracy; HUMANODE can help DeFi platforms achieve equal participation and avoid the problems of the rich getting richer and capital control.
Sybil-resistant ownership of real-world assets
HUMANODE can provide Sybil-resistant ownership for the tokenization of real-world assets, such as art, land, real estate, etc.
HUMANODE can prevent the problem of multiple addresses claiming to own the same asset, thereby achieving true and credible ownership. For example, HUMANODE can help art platforms achieve real collections and transactions, avoiding problems of counterfeiting and fraud; HUMANODE can help land platforms realize real registration and transfer, avoiding duplication and conflict problems; HUMANODE can help real estate platforms realize real leasing and sale to avoid vacancy and preemption issues.
Human-based Liquidity Market Maker (AMM)
Automated market makers like Uniswap or PancakeSwap simplify trading on decentralized platforms, but they are a double-edged sword. For one thing, they eliminate the middleman. On the other hand, they are vulnerable to manipulative practices such as insider trading. Bad actors can disrupt liquidity pools, distort price ratios, and trick honest traders into making bad trades.
HUMANODE applies on-chain biological mapping to AMM. Each liquidity provider will be a verified human being, not a bot programmed to manipulate. With authentication tied to unique facial features, you can ensure the pool is not a playground for market manipulators.
A truly decentralized autonomous organization (DAO)
DAOs are the poster child for decentralized governance, but they are far from perfect. Let’s face it, with the rise of DAOs comes an increase in DAO-related scams. Anyone can set up multiple wallets, accumulate governance tokens, and essentially hijack the entire decision-making process. This is governance anarchy masquerading as democracy.
The integration of biomapping on private chains could change this. Each DAO governance token can be tied to a person, with their unique biometric signature acting as a trust anchor. This ensures a one-person-one-vote system in its purest form.
Apart from this, one of the solutions considered to eliminate oligopoly in systems like PoS and DPOS is quadratic voting, where the number of votes of each member increases non-linearly, but its implementation requires a lot of considerations, one of which is the Sybil attack . Implementing a secondary voting system becomes easier by using on-chain biometric mapping to tie a person to an account.
Decentralized insurance with only human policyholders
The anonymity of blockchain creates a safe haven for fraudsters, who can submit multiple claims and even manipulate policy premiums. Ever wonder why the decentralized insurance space isn’t exploding like it should?
Plug in a private on-chain biograph here and you'll see a huge transformation. Policyholders need to pass unique real-time biometric verification before they can hold a policy or submit a claim. When every claim is tied to a living, breathing, unique person, there is no room for fraud.
team
The HUMANODE project team is composed of a group of professionals from different countries and backgrounds. They have rich experience and knowledge in blockchain, DeFi, finance, technology, marketing, etc.
Among them, DATO serves as a co-founder and serves as director and strategic director of Paradigm Research.
Financing
In April 2022, Humanode announced the completion of a US$2 million seed round of financing, led by Republic Capital, Tribe Capital, Blizzard, Wintermute, GravityX Capital, Shima Capital, Genblock, AU21 and StaFi, as well as Polygon co-founders Jaynti Kanani and Sandeep Nailwal Waiting for participation.
Summarize
HUMANODE is an independent Layer 1 blockchain network based on the Substrate framework that provides resistance to Sybil attacks through decentralized biometric technology to verify the human existence and uniqueness of nodes, rather than relying on PoW Or PoS. HUMANODE's goal is to create a truly distributed, democratic and Sybil-resistant blockchain Layer 1.
