Polygon Labs, Animoca Brands partner with Human Institute to launch ZKP-powered palm recognition

• Humanity Protocol emerges from stealth with Human Institute, Polygon Labs and Animoca Brands partnership.
• The protocol provides for a privacy-preserving alternative to the more invasive biometric methods such as iris scans.

Human Institute has announced the launch of Humanity Protocol, a zkEVM Layer-2 blockchain protocol that leverages the Polygon CDK to offer a new palm recognition technology for Web3 identity verification.

The protocol has emerged from stealth with the backing of Polygon Labs and Animoca Brands, according to details shared in a press release.

Non-invasive biometrics

Humanity Protocol founder Terence Kwok, Animoca Brands co-founder Yat Siu, and Polygon Labs co-founder Sandeep Nailwal form the founding council for the new project.

Per the Human Institute, the new protocol provides for a privacy-preserving alternative to the invasive biometric methods. Such methods includes Worldcoin’s (WLD) iris scans.

“Existing Proof-of-Personhood technologies can be invasive, complex, or burdensome. By leveraging the cutting-edge technology using non-invasive biometrics that lies at the core of the Proof-of-Humanity consensus mechanism, Humanity Protocol is building a user-centric ecosystem that can onboard millions to a verifiable digital identity solution that is truly decentralized and respects the principles of true digital ownership, in the process enabling better equity and inclusion for all participants,” Yat Siu said.

According to the Human Institute, the technology will benefit various decentralized applications. These will include fully on-chain games, Decentralized Social Media (DeSO), Real World Assets (RWA), enterprise DeFi solutions, and Decentralized Physical Infrastructure (DePIN) systems.

“As the world’s first blockchain ecosystem to not only be truly sybil-resistant but also to natively integrate verifiable credentials into a decentralized validator node network, Humanity Protocol lays the foundation for a wide variety of blockchain and real-world applications to be built on top,” Sandeep Nailwal commented.

Users will easily access the zkVM-powered protocol through smartphones. The testnet will allow onboarded users to earn rewards.