KuCoin AMA With Humanode (HMND) — A New-age Decentralized Crypto-Biometric Network
Dear KuCoin Users,
Time: March 30, 2023, 11:00 AM - 12:31 PM (UTC)
KuCoin hosted an AMA (Ask-Me-Anything) session with the Co-founder of Humanode, Victor, in the KuCoin Exchange Group.
Official Website: https://humanode.io/
Whitepaper: Click to view
Follow Humanode on Telegram and Twitter.
Project Introduction
Humanode is the first crypto-biometric blockchain where one human = one node = one vote bringing real decentralization and Sybil-resistance to Web 3 using ZK-biometrics.
Guest
Victor — Founder of Pendulum Labs, Contributor to Humanode’s DAO
A serial entrepreneur in the tech space with an educational background in Economics, computer science, and programming who now is on a mission to bring true decentralization to the crypto industry.
Q&A from KuCoin
Q: Please give us a summary of what Humanode is.
Victor: Humanode is the first crypto-biometric network where one human = one node brings Sybil resistance to crypto using biometric technology. We are solving the most important problem in crypto - centralization.
The Problem
The Solution
Q: What are the project's overall vision and goals?
Victor: Humanode is the project our team felt was necessary to realize actual decentralization in this space, rather than the current sad state of centralized decentralization, in which the centralization of power, at times, is worse than the traditional financial institutions. PoS and PoW are plutocratic at the very core.
1 human = 1 node = 1 vote. This is our end goal. All nodes are authorized without PoS or PoW whatsoever. Thus, there is only one real, unique human being behind each node. All nodes are equal regarding validation and voting, bringing real power distribution and a democratic basis to web 3. Imagine millions of human nodes owning the network in equal shares. That's our vision.
Humanode is also a vision of decentralized private ownership and signature of anything, from your NFTs and financial transactions to real estate. It enables you to have an auditable pseudonymous biometric identification that allows you to own something, not because a company or government allows you to, but because it is bound to you by your biometric identity.
Q: How did you come up with the idea of creating a crypto-biometric blockchain?
Victor: We have been in the crypto industry since 2013 and founded our research institute. At the time we were excited about decentralization, but as we moved forward, we realized that Sybil's resistance was, in fact, Sybil's acceptance! You could deploy as many nodes as you want if you had the money to amass mining equipment or tokens for staking!
So in 2017, we set out to form a 1 human = 1 vote system. At first, we didn't know how to achieve it, but fortunately, we have also been very closely looking at what is happening in the biometric field. Then in 2020, a huge leap in terms of precision happened in the biometric market. Facial recognition and liveness detection models have become so precise that they can easily distinguish real human beings. That's when the real idea was born.
Q: What is Sybil resistance, and why is its prevention important in crypto and Web3?
Victor: A Sybil attack is an attack on a computer network in which an attacker subverts the service's reputation system by creating many pseudonymous identities and using them to gain a disproportionately large influence. It's a core concept for blockchain, but right now, Sybil's resistance is not based on identity in blockchains but on the stake. If you have enough money, you can attack the blockchain or the DAO since all of them are based on token holdings.
Now, imagine what you can do when you can prove the human is real. One person, one vote DAOs, quadratic voting, undercollateralized loans, UBI! And we have projects building all this on top of us.
Q: How does Humanode prevent Sybil attacks, and what is the significance of recurring costs in this approach?
Victor: We are preventing Sybil attacks using state-of-the-art facial recognition, available on any device. People have to go through a 10-sec session during which we find out whether you're unique and real. However, that's not it. We also track if you're an active voter or if you did something for the Humanode network and registered it on-chain If in other blockchains the costs are stake or mining equipment, in our case, the costs are real-time, you should spend to become a human node.
In addition, to perform an attack, one would need to coordinate with 51% of other human nodes! And ALL the attackers can do is change the order of transactions in the last block. However, they won't be able to change the history of the ledger due to the finalization of blocks by our consensus algorithm.
Q: What are some use cases with Humanode, and what is your vision for the evolution of the network as its adoption grows?
Victor: Humanode enables Sybil resistance on any blockchain by having a proof-of-human-existence protocol based on liveness detection. This has a great impact on the market as a whole.
Use cases can range from any digital marketplace where we can utilize crypto-biometrics, which have been designed to keep the user's biometric identification private while proving that a person is indeed a living person and confirming that the person tied to the account is the person who is trying to log in, preventing scam and Sybil attacks, to Credit Scoring solutions, to Airdrops and Launchpads for KYC solutions and so on.
You must remember the possibilities the combination of Crypto-Biometrics and NFTs (Soulbound NFTs, one person = 1 minute) will bring, and the problems that Sybil-resistant IDs will solve in Play-to-Earn games full of bots.
One of the most wanted use cases is in social media. Our first application created using crypto-biometric technology is the Bot Basher for Discord. Test it, guys. There is a Galxe campaign! Allowing people to verify that a real live human is behind their account (Hi Elon). We already allowed a Sybil-resistant account for Discord - we also hope to bring this technology to Telegram and other social media platforms.
Q: Humanode developed the Proof-of-Human-Existence consensus, an alternative consensus mechanism to Proof-of-Work (POW) and Proof-of-Stake (POS). In simple terms, please tell us more about the benefits that Proof-of-Human-Existence brings to DeFi users and protocols.
Victor: First, DeFi protocols can be sure they run on a decentralized network without MEV. Secondly, they can be a part of the network themselves and earn rewards for being a human node. Using private biometric identities, we can bring less collateralized loans, insurance, and fair liquidity pools where whales do not get all the rewards but more go to small LPs!
Q: What is the role of the HMND token in the Humanode ecosystem?
Victor: HMND is the native token of our blockchain. It is a currency used for transaction fees, deployment, and interaction with smart contracts. Compared to other L1s, it is also used for private biometric uniqueness and liveness checks.
As mentioned, the token is not tied to the governance, so the amount of tokens one owns is not tied to the power of your vote. Only one person votes for our governance. This makes our blockchain accessible to anyone!
Free-Ask from KuCoin Community
Q: What are the fees for accessing Humanode to prevent Sybil attacks?
Victor: The fees are really low, just around $0.01 only. We prevent Sybil by private biometric processing.
Q: Do you allow suggestions and feedback from the community? Are we allowed in decision-making? Do you put the community into consideration?
Victor: We developed an integration with Discord, and now our community can participate in 1 person 1 vote polls. That is how we consider the community's decision. So check our integration and join Discord!
Q: Your documentation mentions that instead of Pow and PoS, Humanode combines Uniqueness Testing and Combined Existence Testing. Could you describe how these mechanisms work and the advantages of their implementation?
Victor: In any blockchain, you need to set up a server. Right now, the monthly cost is $10-$25. Then for your node to start validating transactions, you must go through a 10-second facial recognition session. And that's it! No stake is required!
Q: You will have the biometric information for every human. How can we be sure this information will be secure enough and not used for bad purposes?
Victor: The original image or video of a person is never leaving your device. Instead, we create an anonymized derivative of your 3D face, encrypt it, and then send it to an encrypted server where nobody can see the data inside. All biometric servers are registered on the blockchain.
Q: Since NFT is popular nowadays, is there a plan for NFT integration?
Victor: Hey, Kate! We have already started issuing Soulbound NFTs connected to your physical identity on Galxe!
👉 Discord BotBasher Beta Tests OAT and $500 raffle
KuCoin Post AMA Activity — Humanode (HMND)
🎁 Participate in the Humanode AMA quiz now for a chance to win $10 in HMND!
The form will remain open for five days from publishing this AMA recap.
Giveaway Section
KuCoin and Humanode have prepared a total of $2,000 in HMND to give away to AMA participants.
1. Pre-AMA activity: $400 in HMND
2. Free-ask section: $50 in HMND
3. Flash mini-game: $400 in HMND
4. Post-AMA quiz: $1,150 HMND
. . .
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