Humanity shifts to 'Proof of Trust'… "Stepping up response to 'AI fraud'"

Humanity, a decentralized identity verification project, said on the 19th (local time) it is moving from its existing 'Proof of Humanity' model to a 'Proof of Trust' model to strengthen its response to artificial intelligence (AI)-driven fraud.

Proof of Trust is a framework designed to allow institutions to verify and attest to user information without collecting or storing personal data. Humanity believes Proof of Trust could establish itself as a new standard for proving trustworthiness on the internet in the AI era.

The shift comes as AI-based identity manipulation spreads. Humanity said, "As the cost of fake identities and coordinated behavior falls, traditional identity verification methods—such as follower counts, engagement metrics, and verification badges—are increasingly hard to trust," adding that "systems designed on the premise of genuine user participation are under structural pressure."

Specifically, Proof of Trust expands on the existing Proof of Humanity concept. Beyond simply distinguishing whether a user is a real person or a bot, the core of Proof of Trust is enabling users to prove specific attributes—such as age, educational background, place of residence, and employment status—without exposing personal data.

Humanity founder Terence Kwok said, "AI is transforming the internet from a human-centric network into one where humans and agents coexist," adding that "the ability to verify who is a real person and which claims are trustworthy will become core infrastructure on par with payments, cloud, and cybersecurity." He continued, "As AI-enabled fake identities proliferate, demand for systems that protect personal data while proving trust will expand across billions of users and economic activity worth trillions of dollars."

Humanity also released a 'Trust Manifesto' on the day. In the manifesto, the company said, "Today's internet was not designed with trust as a premise," and pointed out that "information sharing is easy but verification is difficult, leaving users exposed to fraud, data leaks, and excessive exercises of power by centralized platforms."

It also unveiled an application programming interface (API) for developers of existing applications (apps). The API is designed to allow developers to integrate Humanity Protocol's trust verification functions into authentication procedures, access controls, and credential workflows without specialized knowledge of blockchain. According to the company, the features can be used by social platforms that need to verify real users, financial services seeking to streamline know-your-customer (KYC) processes without storing sensitive personal data, and authentication systems looking to add anti-fraud capabilities.

Meanwhile, Humanity recently acquired Moongate, an on-chain ticketing and credentialing platform. The move is aimed at expanding services through events, loyalty programs, and issuance of physical credentials. A Humanity official said, "To date, we have issued more than 800,000 Human IDs," adding, "We have also completed deployment on the Arbitrum (ARB) mainnet."