Humanode Secures $2M Funding As The Testnet Hits 1650 Unique Validators

Humanode, the world’s first cryptobiometric network in which one individual equals one node, has closed its $2 million seed round. The seed round, which was led by Republic Capital, included participation from Tribe Capital, Blizzard – the Avalanche ecosystem fund, Wintermute, GravityX Capital, Shima Capital, Genblock, AU21, and StaFi, as well as Polygon co-founders Jaynti Kanani and Sandeep Nailwal.

Humanode is the world’s first blockchain project to employ a consensus process based on crypto-biometric identification to achieve their aim of one human = one node = one vote, hence resolving a number of well-known challenges in crypto-economics and governance. In collaboration with Facetec, Humanode created a layer 1 protocol that provides significant Sybil resilience with very accurate private biometric algorithms.

“At the moment, crypto governance is a plutocratic nightmare fraught with whales and Sybil attacks. Humanode is laying the foundational infrastructure for robust, fully pseudonymous digital identities that will serve as a cornerstone of our increasingly immersive digital world.” Alex Ye, Republic Crypto’s Managing Partner, explains.

“Sybil attack is what stands between humanity and a completely new way of interaction with the world around us,” Humanode co-founder Dato Kavazi explains. “It is not just a blockchain problem. Bots are a scourge of any high-level digital infrastructure and we are here to get rid of them in a private and decentralized fashion. By delivering a blockchain-based on biometrically verified pseudonymous identities we want to ensure that any systems built on top can be sure that nodes are unique real living and breathing human beings. Thank you Republic and Alex Ye in particular for having our back. Humanode welcomes everyone to join its endeavors and with rejuvenated strength, we press on forward into the untamed frontier of computer science.”

Humanode, which plans to deploy its mainnet in mid-2022, just unveiled the platform’s second iteration. Over 11000 people applied to be one of the world’s first human nodes (biometrically certified validator nodes), over 3000 were invited, and over 500 validator nodes were running concurrently. Following a two-week closed beta period for V2, the software’s public open beta version was released on December 23rd, and an additional 1150 human nodes were deployed, bringing the total number of active unique validators to 1650 by February 10th, 2022.

“What makes this testnet unique is that there is no incentive. People are joining because of the potential they see in the project and the change biometric-based Sybil-resistance can bring,” says Humanode co-founder, Victor. “I firmly believe that our supporters, who have joined us in this round, have felt the same possibilities in our project. We are not just providing a “useful tool”, but the means to revolutionize crypto infrastructure, decentralized finance, DAOs, and metaverses by establishing a bond between you and your digital presence. We are going to run a few new experiments where digital assets and rights become soulbound already in March.”

“DAO governance practices are heavily weighted toward token-based quorum and have an exceptionally low voting threshold. While other solutions are attempting to address the issue, Humanode’s “one human – one vote” philosophy is uniquely positioned and resonates with actual voting, albeit in a decentralized and pseudonymous fashion. DAOs/protocols should naturally use technology.” Tejas A, General Partner of GravityX Capital, explains.

“Governance practices in DAOs are majorly focused on token-based quorum and have an extremely low threshold for voting. While various products are working on solving the problem, Humanode’s “one human – one vote” outlook is uniquely positioned and resonates with real-life voting albeit in a decentralized and pseudonymous manner. It is only natural for DAOs/protocols to leverage the technology.” says Tejas A, General Partner at GravityX Capital.