Humanity Protocol, a decentralized identity solution, has achieved unicorn status following a successful $30 million funding round that propelled its valuation to $1 billion.
The investment round, led by Kingsway Capital, included contributions from prominent entities such as Animoca Brands, Blockchain.com, Hashed, Shima Capital, and 20 other investors, as detailed in a May 15 Medium post by Humanity Protocol.
This capital injection will be used to enhance product development efforts in anticipation of the public testnet scheduled for the latter half of 2024.
The protocol utilizes palm scanning technology combined with zero-knowledge proof technology and a “proof-of-humanity” consensus mechanism to secure users’ digital identities on the blockchain. This method is designed to verify that a user is human and not an AI bot, positioning itself as a potentially less invasive alternative to iris scanning technologies like those used by Worldcoin, spearheaded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
While Worldcoin has garnered significant attention and amassed 10 million users, it has faced privacy concerns leading to bans in several countries. In contrast, Humanity Protocol has attracted over half a million people to its waitlist just one month after emerging from stealth mode.
The project was initiated by Terence Kwok through the Human Institute in February 2023, with support from figures such as Yat Siu, co-founder of Animoca Brands, and Polygon Labs, which assisted in building a testnet in February of this year.
Yat Siu emphasizes the importance of ensuring decentralized identity solutions are not overly invasive, complex, or cumbersome, especially during the user onboarding process.
The competition in the blockchain-based identity sector is intensifying, particularly as data breaches continue to rise in an AI-driven world. According to IT Governance, 8.2 billion documents were compromised in 2,814 reported incidents in 2023 alone.
Humanity Protocol promises that user information will be stored in a decentralized manner, ensuring that the data remains solely under the user’s control.