Holonym acquires Gitcoin Passport in proof-of-personhood expansion

Digital identity project Holonym Foundation has acquired identity verification platform Gitcoin Passport for $10 million in a bid to create the largest Proof of Personhood (PoP) network.

According to the deal, Gitcoin Passport will be renamed into Human Passport and will operate as a Proof of Personhood (PoP) protocol that allows users to verify that they are a unique person, not a bot or AI agent, without disclosing sensitive personal data.

Holonym is the latest addition to the Proof of Personhood (PoP) market, which includes companies such as Humanity Protocol, Civic and World, formerly known as Worldcoin. Proof of Personhood (PoP), sometimes called Proof of Humanity (PoH), ensures that users are real human beings through identity verification that doesn’t rely on a central authority or shared personal information.

As an identity verification application, the Human Passport will be accessible to users all over the world, offering a combination of verification methods such as online reputation, web accounts, phone numbers, government IDs, and an anonymous biometric method, Holonym Foundation’s founder Shady El Damaty has told CoinTelegraph.

El Damaty did not disclose which biometric technique the company would use but he did note that it was being piloted to provide displaced populations in the Global South with a base identity to receive aid and humanitarian services. World has been relying on iris biometrics to establish its World ID and proof of personhood (PoP) while Humanity Protocol plans to employ palm biometrics.

The Human Passport will be enhanced with zero knowledge (ZK) capability for private on-chain reputation. Zero-knowledge proofs are cryptographic protocols that allow one party to prove the validity of a statement to another party without revealing sensitive data, enhancing privacy and security in digital ID systems.

The Human Passport is a part of the Human.tech ecosystem, a suite of cryptographic tools enabling identity verification, authentication and access to finance. Human.tech plans to roll out 34.5 million zero-knowledge (ZK) credentials with Gitcoin Passport’s 2 million users, generating more than three times Worldcoin’s identity proofs, according to the firm’s announcement.

The Holonym Protocol is framing its products as a digital identity that empowers digital human rights.

“Gitcoin Passport has always been about empowering individuals with tools to show off their human-ness in a privacy-preserving way,” says Gitcoin Passport Founder Kevin Owocki. “With Human.tech taking the helm, Passport is evolving into something even greater: an identity layer that champions human dignity, privacy, and verifiable trust on the internet.”

Article Topics

acquisitions  |  biometric identifiers  |  biometrics  |  digital identity  |  Holonym Foundation  |  Human Passport  |  identity verification  |  proof of personhood