One of Vitalik’s Favorite Projects - Proof of Humanity
Proof of Humanity, its sociopolitical experimentation and $UBI
Welcome to the 5th issue of the Web3 Curator, a weekly short content about interesting Web3 projects.
GM frens!
We can all agree that it’s absolutely mega fun to flip NFTs or chase the highest yield on the newest farms, but the recent TIME cover story on Vitalik reminded me to not forget it’s also crucial to think about what we can build with this technology in the long term for the greater good of society.
“One silver lining of the situation in the last three weeks is that it has reminded a lot of people in the crypto space that ultimately the goal of crypto is not to play games with million-dollar pictures of monkeys, it’s to do things that accomplish meaningful effects in the real world,” Buterin wrote in an email to TIME on March 14. — TIME
Proof of Humanity is one of Vitalik’s favorite projects on Ethereum. He talks about this project many times in interviews and in his blog. The project attempts to solve social problems like world poverty, fairer voting system for democracy and social media misinformation.
In this issue, we will take a look at Proof of Humanity and $UBI.
What is Proof of Humanity
How can you start earning $UBI
Use cases
Its challenges
What is POH
“Proof of Humanity is a social identity verification system for humans on Ethereum.” - Kleros
Proof of Humanity was launched in March 2021 by the blockchain protocol Kleros and the non-profit Democracy Earth Foundation. It is an anti-sybil registry to prove user’s human identity.
What Proof of Humanity unlocks
After signing up for Proof of Humanity and successfully verifying you are a human, you will start receiving $UBI tokens.
Be a liquidity provider
Participate in governance
Use Cases
$UBI
The immediate use case for Proof of Humanity is to accrue $UBI token once your Proof of Humanity submission is approved. $UBI is a universal basic income token developed by Democracy Earth Foundation founded by Santi Siri, who is also the co-founder of Proof of Humanity.
$UBI streams 1 $UBI per hour per person. $UBI has come from DeFi liquidity mining rewards, donations, and is currently exploring new mechanisms to sustainably fund the project.
If you scroll through Proof of Humanity profiles you will find a lot of kids and grandmas on there. It’s really awesome to see people onboard their family through $UBI.
Maybe you have tried to onboard your friends and family, because you want them to see the bettered world from your eyes, by telling them the invention of DeFi, whatever coins you’re currently into, or how everything should be NFTs, but end up annoy everyone around you. Then, $UBI is totally worth another try to onboard them and for them to start earning some extra income.
Voting
Many DAOs currently use a token voting system which is heavily favorable to whales. Proof of Humanity unlocks a one-person-one-vote system that individuals have the equal representation of participating in the democratic process.
CityDAO is a DAO trying to create a new crypto city in Wyoming under the Wyoming DAO law. It adopts the one-person-one-vote system by using Proof of Humanity instead of the governance token voting system often seen in other DAOs.
Other projects have integrated Proof of Humanity include: Gitcoin, Ripio and Proof of Integrity.
How to sign up
Before signing up, something to keep in mind is to use a fresh Metamask account or an account that you feel comfortable being public. To start a new account, use tornado.cash to fund the account for your privacy, and don’t forget to have some extra ETH for gas. (Here’s a guide on how to use tornado)
Go to app.proofofhumanity.id, connect your wallet and submit your profile.
Upload your profile picture and record a video to follow the instructions, you will need to deposit 0.125 ETH for this application which will be returned after successful registration. There is an option to crowdfund your Initial Deposit (0.125 ETH) on the website.
Users who are already in the registry will vouch for people registering.
Submissions can be challenged by users if they think they don’t comply the requirements, and the case will go to Klores Court, an ERC792 compliant dispute resolution system.
Challenges
Proof of Humanity’s ambitious mission can benefit a lot of people in need and provide support for web3 social projects in the ecosystem. But there’s also some challenges need to solve in order to scale, like:
How to fund $UBI sustainably. The idea of dripping $UBI is for those in need to spend. After accumulating for a period of time, some people will want to sell their $UBI to support their daily lives and the selling pressure make $UBI price fall continuously. Vitalik talked about this problem in his Tweet, “we need to move beyond individual donations and get to persistent commitment by mechanisms.”
If you are interested in or knowledgable on this topic, you can participate in the forum and help the Proof of Humanity project sustain itself in the long run.
On-board education & language support. For people who need $UBI to cover their daily lives often don’t know about crypto or how to install a Metamask wallet. Education is still needed for on-boarding.
The verification video statement of “I certify that I am a real human and that I am not already registered in this registry” is in English and currently no other languages are supported, that’s a barrier for the non-English speaking population who are the majority of developing country that needed $UBI the most.
Action
Register on Proof of Humanity and start earning $UBI
Check out TIME cover story on Vitalik: The Man Behind Ethereum Is Worried About Crypto's Future
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This newsletter is for informational and educational purposes only, not financial advice. Always DYOR.