Last year, Elon Musk made headlines for tweets suggesting that the future of social media is to pay for it, otherwise it would just become a bot. This problem of how to prove you’re a human and not a bot is only going to get worse.
Mr. Musk is right. The bots are coming and we have to do something. But in addition to the options he presented, we have two more. Here is an expanding list of options for proving your humanity in the age of ubiquitous AI.
- Pay-to-play (i.e. mask option)
- Wide selection of existing Proof-of-Human products from Web3
- Government-issued digital ID
I think it will end up being a combination of some of the above, but to the extent that number 3 is the most appealing option for many people, this is another way the AI is inherently focused. However, there are concerns that one of the secrets of decentralization is the possibility of a situation where the government can digitally automate you with the click of a mouse. If this also concerns you, keep reading.
This article provides a quick introduction to option 2, Web3’s human proof service, for those not using cryptocurrencies. Yes, I understand, I understand. No one wants to read another article about how “web3 solves this”. But don’t close that tab.
Even if you don’t like cryptocurrencies, it’s worth knowing how much effort and money went into solving the exact problems Mr. Musk is concerned about. Here are two relevant facts that crypto haters should consider before pushing back.
- Digital identity is an important and established front in the “centralization vs. decentralization” battle. So if you care about this fight, this issue is important.
- Recent advances in AI have fundamentally changed the realm of digital identity, creating problems for Web 2.0 that were previously limited to Web3. In other words, it is a way for human nodes to reliably impersonate and authenticate their identity within the network at scale. At low marginal cost.
Proof-of-Human is an early fundamental Web3 problem
One of the main differences between cryptocurrencies and the traditional web is: ubiquitous pseudonym. Crypto types are very interested in the whole anonymous persona online.
Now, you may not care about pseudonyms. Or maybe you think it’s only for money launderers, drug peddlers, bootleggers, and prank callers. Got it, Boomer. However, please be patient for a moment. I promise I’m not trying to put you on a pseudo pill. I just want you to understand why proof-of-human is a long-standing concern of her Web3.
The de facto standard for identity on the current web (web2) is Email address and password combination. To sign up for a new service, you typically provide these two items and receive a confirmation link in your email. By clicking this link, you can prove that you are the rightful owner of that email address.
In contrast, the standard for identity in Web3 is: crypto address. This is a public address on a public blockchain (often Ethereum) and has a private key, allowing you to prove ownership.
Therefore, Web3 IDs have the following properties:
- Easy and inexpensive for one person to create and use in large quantities
- Cannot be linked to a single person, company or other entity
- Used for Web3-based Internet service accounts
- Used to move valuable assets
Some might say that in Web3, all phones are burner phones and there are no other types of phones. This is because it is very easy to create a new crypto address and use it as your ID. This can be done locally by simply creating a new public/private key pair in the correct format, and by interacting with the blockchain if you want to send assets (coins, NFTs) to that address. I can.
Obviously, this is a rather dangerous combination of properties, and very easy to exploit even without advanced AI. If you only need locally generated key pairs to log into a Web3-based service, one unsophisticated person can create millions of public/private key pairs on his laptop and use them. You can spam thousands of fake Web3 applications. Interaction with some simple scripts. For example, you can use this to manipulate her DAO votes or abuse Tokengate applications.
point: In the early stages of Web3’s existence, Web3 services had a very human-proofing problem, as essentially single-use bulk ID creation was smooth and easy, and it was only in the AI era that they really caught up to Web2. I did.
Web3 solution
If you Google “Web3 Proof of Human” you’ll get tons of results. Everyone has ideas on how to do this, and many of them are very good and practical.
Additionally, some Web3 projects I’ve seen incorporate their own solutions for accessing services and communities, as well as other Web3 efforts where Proof of Human is a side effect. there is. effect (Poapu I think this is a good example of the latter Stepun may be different in that proof of training is the same as proof of humanity).
If anything, the problem with web3 is that there are too many solutions to the PoH problem and no one has decided on a standard. Looking at the list above, you can see that there is basically a market for Proof-of-Human services that many he Web3 hustlers would like to monopolize with their own solutions.
Below is a short list of some approaches.
- Scan your eyeball data into a spooky sphere (i.e. WorldCoin).
- Multiple people meet in person and give each other an NFT that essentially says, “I did something IRL with the person who controls this wallet.”
- Users upload videos of themselves answering questions or performing required tasks.
- Users take cognitive tests that are still too difficult for AI.
- Users vouch for or challenge each other’s humanity.
- The platform analyzes the social graph on the network and uses it as evidence.
- The platform looks at your wallet for NFT credentials, which are typically recognized as only given to a living person to do something in the real world. For example, on-chain certificates granted by institutions or programs, community participation tokens earned, or status badges from established Web3 communities.
None of these have fraud protection capabilities on their own, so most PoH products combine multiple approaches to provide some type of score. But let me be clear about what this list is. These aren’t random ideas or shower thoughts that I or anyone else thought might be kinda cool if someone created it. No, they do exist (in some cases, products built around these ideas and more are actually shipping, some with thousands of users. It exists thanks to the current (but steadily reignited) crypto bubble, and a real community is testing it.
Again, the problem is that such PoH initiatives are highly diverse and lack clear standards and mandates. If there was such a thing as “LinkedIn” other than PoH (perhaps he could do this on LinkedIn itself), working with a colleague would mean “John Stokes is definitely here to do this job. You will receive an on-chain badge that says, ” would be more dominant. However, such a Schelling point does not yet exist.
I would probably choose option 3
I can already hear you asking, “Can’t we just use a government-issued digital ID to do all the ‘Web3’ things you’re describing?” (i.e. option number 3 in the list in the first section of this article).
The answer is “Yes, of course.” And there are a number of national efforts to do just that, some involving blockchain and others not.
As I said at the beginning, the people who want the government to handle this will probably get their way eventually. But it’s clear that it doesn’t have to be this way.
We have a number of options for human certification that don’t require private platforms like X to pay fees to a centralized service provider, either through subscription fees or governments through taxes. If you value privacy and freedom, you should use them.
And if we choose pay-to-play, a privacy-protecting option like Bitcoin (either L1 or Lightning Network), which social media can use to filter bots without compromising pseudonymity. You have the option to
