Humanity, a technology startup focused on building what it calls the Internet’s trust layer, announced the transition from its original Proof of Humanity mechanism to a broader framework called Proof of Trust.
According to a press release shared with Finbold on February 19, the upgrade is designed to allow organizations to verify specific user information without collecting, storing, or exposing sensitive personal data. The new framework aims to address growing concerns about AI-driven fraud, synthetic identities, and digital manipulation at scale.
From proof of humanity to proof of trust
The company said the shift came as artificial intelligence (AI) reduces the cost of generating convincing fake personas and automated engagement, putting pressure on traditional online verification signals such as followers, engagement metrics and verification badges.
Humanity initially focused on verifying the user’s unique identity through palm biometrics and zero-knowledge proofs. New trust models extend this approach by enabling verifiable credentials associated with specific identity characteristics.
Users can prove attributes such as age, residence, education, employment, and compliance status without exposing raw personal data across integrated mobile and web applications.
While Proof of Humanity verifies whether a user is genuine, Proof of Trust extends this by enabling proof of additional claims beyond simply distinguishing between humans and bots.
“As AI transforms the Internet from a network of people to a network of people and autonomous agents, the ability to verify who is real and which claims can be trusted will become a foundational infrastructure on a par with payments, cloud, and cybersecurity. All major digital sectors, including social platforms, financial services, marketplaces, gaming, education, healthcare, and governance, rely on identity, access, reputation, and compliance, but most still operate on weak and easily manipulated signals.” Humanity founder Terrence Kwok said: “As synthetic identities and automated behaviors expand, the demand for privacy-preserving, portable trust primitives will grow across billions of users and trillions of dollars of economic activity. The opportunity is to create a global trust standard for the AI economy.”
Developer API and Moongate acquisition
Alongside the technology update, Humanity also published a Trust Manifesto outlining its vision for digital identity. The paper argues that the current Internet was not designed with trust as a central principle, and proposes a model built on user-controlled personal data, cryptographic proofs rather than raw information sharing, decentralized credential issuance, and portable identity credentials that function primarily across Web2 environments without exposing personal data.
The company has also released developer APIs aimed at traditional applications, allowing non-blockchain platforms to integrate human verification and trust services into their authentication systems, access control, and credential workflows without requiring blockchain expertise.
Potential use cases include social platforms that verify real users, financial services that streamline KYC processes without storing sensitive data, fraud prevention systems, and real-world asset ownership verification.
Humanity also recently announced the acquisition of Moongate, an on-chain ticketing and authentication platform. The acquisition aims to expand its presence into event access, loyalty programs, and real-world credential issuance.
Humanity says it has issued more than 8 million Human IDs to date and completed its mainnet deployment on Arbitrum.
Featured image via Shutterstock.
