AI agents & concepts

What is Proof of personhood?

Definition: Proof of personhood is a way to verify that an online actor is a unique human — not a bot, a duplicate account, or an AI agent — without necessarily revealing who they are. As AI agents flood the internet, it's becoming core infrastructure for fair airdrops, governance, and telling delegated agents apart from fake users.

Approaches range from biometric (World's iris-scanning Orb) to aggregate signals: Human Passport (formerly Gitcoin Passport, acquired by Holonym's human.tech in late 2024) lets users collect verifiable "stamps" from web2 and web3 accounts into a Unique Humanity Score that apps can gate on — proving humanity without exposing identity.

In the agent economy the point isn't to exclude agents — it's to bind them to humans. An agent acting for a verified person (with a mandate or an agent wallet) is a customer; a swarm of agents pretending to be thousands of people is a Sybil attack. Proof of personhood is the anchor that keeps one human behind each delegated identity.

Does proof of personhood block AI agents?

No — it distinguishes them. A delegated agent can act under a verified human's identity and authorization; what proof of personhood blocks is one operator masquerading as many humans (Sybil attacks) in votes, airdrops and reward programs.

Put it into practice

Understand the agent-era trust stack →

Related terms