When I first read about the upcoming Proof-of-Humanity relaunch, I felt a wave of excitement—this isn’t just another airdrop, it’s a bold experiment in scalable, on-chain universal basic income (UBI) built on a Sybil-resistant identity layer. Proof-of-Humanity originally debuted in 2021 as a decentralized registry where users submitted a name, photo, and video, then vouched for each other through Kleros courts, creating a robust defense against bots and duplicate identities. Yet V1 faced two major hurdles: high Ethereum gas fees that priced out many potential participants and confinement to a single chain, limiting global reach and real-world impact. The relaunch in 2025—often dubbed “PoH V2”—aims to smash those barriers with multi-chain deployment, gas-optimized smart contracts, and zero-knowledge proofs for privacy preservation, all working together to scale UBI issuance to millions. As a developer and human at the same time, I want to walk you through the nuts and bolts of how PoH V2 tackles these challenges head-on, because the true test of any identity-based UBI lies in whether it can authentically include every person, everywhere, without compromise.
In this article, we’ll unpack the technical architecture powering the relaunch, from the revamped smart-contract modules to the cross-chain bridges enabled by LayerZero, and even peek under the hood at the zk-Proofs that promise private yet verifiable human attestations. Along the way, I’ll share insights into the scalability strategies—like transaction batching and off-chain attestations—that could make or break global UBI rollout. We’ll also explore the developer resources at your fingertips: SDKs, subgraphs, Docker setups, and example dApp snippets that let you start integrating PoH relaunch features today. Finally, we’ll address the elephant in the room: security audits, formal verification, and governance mechanisms designed to keep this massive experiment on rails.
My goal is to arm you—whether you’re a protocol engineer, smart-contract auditor, or toolsmith—with a crystal-clear view of Proof-of-Humanity’s relaunch ambitions and practical guidance on how to plug in, contribute, or simply track its progress. Let’s dive in and see if on-chain UBI really can scale globally—and what it takes, under the hood, to make that vision a reality.
Background and Motivation
Origins of Proof-of-Humanity
Proof-of-Humanity (PoH) first launched in early 2021 as a Sybil-resistant registry on Ethereum, requiring each applicant to submit a name, photo, video, and social vouches to prove uniqueness. It leveraged Kleros courts to arbitrate challenges, allowing any registered user to dispute suspicious profiles and maintain registry integrity. The initial design combined reverse Turing tests, web-of-trust mechanisms, and decentralized dispute resolution to prevent bots and duplicate identities. By mid-2021, PoH had onboarded thousands of participants worldwide, demonstrating the feasibility of on-chain human identity without centralized custodians. Concurrently, Democracy Earth Foundation integrated PoH with a Universal Basic Income (UBI) smart contract, distributing 1 UBI token per registered human per hour as a living experiment in blockchain-native social welfare. This streaming UBI model accrued up to 720 UBI monthly, aiming to benchmark the value of human time across borders. Although innovative, V1’s architecture remained tethered to a single Ethereum mainnet deployment, limiting global participation and subjecting users to high transaction costs.
Needs Driving the Relaunch
Despite its trailblazing status, PoH V1 faced two critical constraints: prohibitive Ethereum mainnet gas fees that priced out low-value claims and the absence of cross-chain interoperability, which restricted UBI distribution to a single network. As global interest in proof-of-personhood grew, developers identified privacy risks inherent in publicly revealing registration data, fueling demand for zero-knowledge (ZK) solutions to validate humanity without exposing personal submissions. Moreover, true universal basic income requires outreach far beyond niche crypto circles, necessitating multi-chain gateways and Layer-2 rollups to achieve global scale while mitigating front-end friction. Community feedback underscored the need for gas-optimized smart-contract patterns—such as batched attestations and minimal storage writes—to lower per-claim costs below micro-transaction thresholds. There was also a strong push to modularize the protocol, enabling incremental upgrades and seamless integration with existing identity ecosystems like World ID and zkSync Era. Ultimately, the relaunch (PoH V2) seeks to dismantle these barriers—embracing ZK membership proofs for privacy, cross-chain bridges for reach, and gas-frugal contract designs—to bring scalable, on-chain UBI closer to reality for millions worldwide.
Technical Architecture of V2 Relaunch
Core Smart-Contract Upgrades
V2 splits PoH into modular contracts—ProofOfHumanity, ProofOfHumanityExtended, and CrossChainProofOfHumanity—facilitating isolated upgrades and reducing gas by avoiding full-registry writes. Deploying initially on Gnosis Chain (a low-fee EVM layer), V2 harnesses minimal storage patterns and batched attestations to bring registration and vouching costs below micro-transaction thresholds. Soulbound IDs assign each human a permanent, non-fungible identifier, ensuring linkability of reputation and asset recovery even if wallet keys are lost.
Cross-Chain Gateway via LayerZero
The CrossChainProofOfHumanity contract intercepts PoH events and relays state changes through LayerZero’s messaging layer, enabling on-chain UBI claims on over 70 chains without centralized bridges. LayerZero’s trust-minimized design uses dual-module verification—an off-chain oracle and on-chain light client—to guard against fraudulent cross-chain updates, with relayers economically disincentivized from misbehavior. Humanity Protocol’s partnership with LayerZero also leverages zkProofer nodes for privacy and gas efficiency, batching membership proofs before finalizing on multiple target networks.
Zero-Knowledge Identity Proofs
While V2’s registry remains transparent by default, zk-membership proofs (inspired by Semaphore) let users generate ZK proofs of PoH registration off-chain, revealing only “registered human” status to verifiers. These ZK proofs can be aggregated and submitted in batched transactions, slashing per-user gas costs and preserving privacy by not publishing raw submission data. Future roadmap items include on-chain verification of SNARK proofs and integration with World ID-style oracles to bootstrap proofs from custom hardware attestations where regulatory frameworks permit.
Scalability Strategies
On-Chain Throughput Enhancements
Ethereum’s Layer 1 network sustains only ~27 transactions per second (TPS), constraining high-frequency UBI claims on mainnet. Layer-2 solutions such as ZK-Rollups and Optimistic Rollups can boost throughput to tens of thousands of TPS—Arbitrum and Optimism demonstrate capacities up to ~40,000 TPS—while reducing fees to a fraction of Layer 1 costs. Gas fees on sidechains like Gnosis Chain run orders of magnitude lower than mainnet, making them ideal initial hosts for PoH V2 registry operations. Transaction batching merges multiple registry or claim calls into a single on-chain proof, achieving up to 70–80 percent gas savings compared to sequential calls. The multicall design pattern further consolidates user actions—registration, vouching, claiming—into atomic bundles, ensuring consistency and cost efficiency.
Off-Chain Attestation Models
Batch SNARK aggregation platforms facilitate grouping thousands of individual proofs into a single succinct argument, then submitting one compact proof on-chain, which can reduce per-user gas to under 1 percent of standalone verification costs. Off-chain subgraphs and oracle services can collect, validate, and relay proof batches—users submit membership attestations off-chain, and a trusted or decentralized oracle posts aggregated results on-chain, distributing claims en masse. Hybrid schemes combine on-chain registry checkpoints with off-chain SNARK proof aggregation, striking a balance between trustlessness and economic efficiency. Such delegation models prevent network congestion by shifting heavy compute and storage burdens off Ethereum base layer.
Performance Benchmarks
Recent benchmarks from Semaphore v4 indicate off-chain proof generation times of <500 ms per identity and on-chain batch verification costs under 20,000 gas for 100 proofs bundled in one transaction, versus ~50,000 gas for a single proof invocation. Layer 2 rollups report real-world TPS in the range of 2,000–4,000 under load, with optimistic confirmation times of ~15 seconds and ZK-Rollup finality under 2 minutes. Multicall implementations reduce average per-user gas by ~60 percent, according to developer case studies on DeFi platforms. Sidechain deployments can settle PoH transactions at <5 gwei gas prices, pushing cost per UBI claim below $0.01 at typical gas market rates. These performance metrics affirm that a well-architected PoH V2 infrastructure can comfortably serve millions of users globally with minimal economic friction.
Developer Resources & Integration
SDKs, APIs, and CLI Tools
Proof-of-Humanity provides an official JavaScript/TypeScript SDK that exposes core registry functions—registration checks, vouching, and UBI claiming—through intuitive methods you can import directly into your front end or back end. For React developers, the poh-validators-react package offers prebuilt UI components—profile cards, vouch buttons, and claim forms—that handle wallet connection, transaction signing, and error states out of the box. Under the hood, the SDK communicates with PoH subgraphs via GraphQL endpoints, letting you fetch on-chain events and user metadata with simple queries—no manual ABI parsing required. For those who prefer REST or CLI workflows, the PoH repository includes a command-line tool (poh-cli) that wraps common operations (e.g., poh-cli isRegistered, poh-cli claimUBI) and supports custom network flags for targeting testnets or sidechains. Beyond the core SDK, community-maintained integrations—such as the Moralis Web3 Wiki’s PoH connector—offer turnkey plugins to natively support PoH in Web3 dashboards, serverless functions, and data pipelines across Ethereum and EVM-compatible chains.
Deployment & Testing
PoH V2’s GitHub organization publishes deploy scripts under the proof-of-humanity-v2-contracts repository. Within scripts/deploy, you’ll find commands like deploy-poh for initial registry setup on low-fee sidechains, deploy-extended for backwards compatibility with V1 profiles, and deploy-ccpoh for the cross-chain gateway contracts. These scripts handle artifact verification, proxy initialization, and on-chain contract verification, so you don’t have to stitch together manual Truffle or Hardhat tasks. For local development, the PoH landing repository offers a Next.js project configured with a devnet profile in next.config.js, enabling you to spin up a mock registry and UI at http://localhost:3000 with a single yarn dev command. Combined with Docker images for Geth and Hardhat networks, you can script CI pipelines that run end-to-end tests against a fully deployed PoH V2 stack.
Sample dApp Walkthrough
To illustrate real-world usage, let’s walk through integrating UBI claims into a React application:
Install dependencies
npm install @proof-of-humanity/sdk poh-validators-react graphql
This pulls in the core SDK, UI components, and GraphQL client.
Initialize the SDK
import { PoH } from '@proof-of-humanity/sdk';
const poh = new PoH({
network: 'gnosis',
subgraphUrl: 'https://api.thegraph.com/subgraphs/name/proof-of-humanity/v2'
});
Here we point at the V2 subgraph for efficient data fetching.
Check registration and claim UBI
const isHuman = await poh.isRegistered(userAddress);
if (isHuman) {
const receipt = await poh.claimUBI({ from: userAddress });
console.log('UBI claimed in tx:', receipt.transactionHash);
}
These one-liner calls wrap complex on-chain flows and handle gas estimation automatically.
Embed UI components
import { ClaimButton, ProfileCard } from 'poh-validators-react';
function Dashboard({ address }) {
return (
<div>
<ProfileCard address={address} />
<ClaimButton address={address} />
</div>
);
}
With minimal JSX, you get a fully styled profile view and claim workflow integrated with your wallet provider.
Security, Audit, and Formal Verification
Recent Audit Reports
Proof-of-Humanity V2’s smart contracts were submitted to an audit competition on Hats.Finance in Q1 2025, where independent security researchers competed to identify vulnerabilities via an on-chain submission process. This competition spans all core modules—including ProofOfHumanity, ProofOfHumanityExtended, and CrossChainProofOfHumanity—and has yielded dozens of detailed findings, from minor gas-optimizations to edge-case exploit scenarios. Although the final consolidated report is pending public release, the Hats.Finance interface shows active liquidity deposits exceeding 150 ETH for bounty rewards, underscoring community confidence in the process. Meanwhile, PoH’s GitHub CI pipelines integrate Slither static analysis checks on every pull request, catching over 70 common Solidity anti-patterns in seconds.
Formal Methods & Verification
Beyond manual audits, PoH V2 teams are pioneering formal verification to mathematically prove critical properties. Tools like MythX and Certora Prover are configured to assert invariants such as “no two addresses can claim the same PoH ID” or “token streaming rates strictly follow the UBI curve.” In parallel, research groups are exploring KEVM-based proofs—akin to Ethereum 2.0 deposit contract verifications—to encode the PoH state machine in K-framework and discharge correctness theorems via SMT solvers. This layered approach (static analysis + fuzzing + formal proofs) dramatically shrinks the attack surface by catching both low-hanging bugs and deep logical flaws before deployment.
Incident Response & Governance
To ensure swift mitigation of any emerging threat, PoH V2 employs a multi-layer governance model:
Bug-Bounty & Liquidity Pools: Hats.Finance bounties remain open with dynamic reward pools, ensuring researchers are compensated for responsible disclosures at any time.
Timelock-Secured Upgrades: All critical contract upgrades pass through a 48-hour on-chain timelock, giving users time to review proposed changes and exit if needed.
Kleros-Anchored Disputes: For contentious governance proposals or suspected malicious code changes, the protocol can escalate disputes to the original Kleros court mechanism, preserving PoH’s social-verification roots.
Challenges for Global UBI Scale
Regulatory & Compliance
Cross-chain UBI claims will traverse multiple jurisdictions, each with its own AML/CFT requirements and KYC obligations—ranging from risk-based due diligence to transaction monitoring thresholds—which can conflict with PoH’s pseudonymous identity model. Many jurisdictions treat token distributions as “token airdrops,” potentially triggering securities regulations or taxation events on receipt, complicating user liability and protocol economics. To comply, PoH must implement modular on-chain compliance hooks—such as whitelisting known VASP contracts, enforcing optional on-ramp KYC gates, or integrating regulatory oracles—that preserve core Sybil resistance while satisfying regional legal mandates.
Economic Sustainability
UBI token issuance must strike a balance between meaningful per-user value and long-term token stability. Overly generous emission curves risk inflationary collapse, eroding trust in the UBI mechanism, whereas overly conservative streams may leave recipients with negligible real-world purchasing power. Sustainable funding could leverage a hybrid treasury composed of protocol fees (e.g., cross-chain relay charges), voluntary donations via digital philanthropy platforms, and token buy-back mechanisms that stabilize price floors. Dynamic issuance models—adjusting UBI rates based on on-chain activity metrics or treasury health—offer responsive control but require robust governance to prevent politicized manipulation.
Inclusivity & Accessibility
True universality demands that PoH’s UBI be within reach of unbanked, low-bandwidth, and differently-abled populations. Conventional Web3 wallets often assume high-speed connections and complex UX flows, excluding users in developing regions. Adopting universal design principles—such as simplified onboarding, offline QR-based attestations, and screen-reader compatibility—ensures accessibility for users with disabilities or intermittent connectivity. Partnerships with mobile-money platforms and progressive Web-app wrappers can further bridge the gap for smartphone-only users, while localized language support and community education programs will drive real-world adoption.
Roadmap & Future Directions
Upcoming Feature Releases
Proof-of-Humanity’s next versions will layer on reputation modules, enabling on-chain scoring of uptime, vouching activity, and dispute resolutions to reward long-term, honest participants. Building on Quadratic Funding concepts pioneered by Gitcoin’s ecosystem, PoH will introduce Quadratic UBI Pools—matching grant rounds that allocate additional tokens based on community-weighted contributions, fostering public-goods funding directly from UBI streams. A DAO-managed treasury is slated for Q3 2025, vesting control of UBI funding parameters to token-weighted holders and Kleros-mediated governance proposals.
Looking beyond core identity, PoH V2 will expand cross-chain reach into TON, Movement Labs, and Solana, enabling on-chain UBI claims across these networks without additional user steps. Intract Persona, an upcoming privacy-compliant layer, will empower individuals to mint and manage portable credentials—such as attestations, certifications, and social tokens—under full user control, leveraging ZK proofs for selective disclosure. Beta support for mobile-first palm-print enrollment via Humanity Protocol devices will follow in late 2025, broadening access in regions with limited internet or banking infrastructure.
Community & Ecosystem Growth
Since its inception, Proof-of-Humanity has raised $5,137 from 2,161 donors and unlocked $13,986 in matching funds through Gitcoin Grants, reflecting a 2.7× match ratio and strong public-goods orientation. To sustain momentum, PoH will host quarterly Gitcoin-style hackathons—partnering with Ceramic and Gitcoin Passport events—to attract builders working on identity connectors, UX improvements, and subgraph enhancements.
Community sprints organized by HUMAN Protocol will run concurrently, offering bounties for EVM-chain integrations, SDK enhancements, and dispute-resolution tooling, while scouting top contributors for core-team roles and grant allocations. The protocol will also launch an ambassador program in mid-2025, funding local meetups, translation efforts, and educational workshops to drive global adoption and ensure PoH’s tools and documentation reach non-English speaking communities.
Together, these feature roadmaps and community initiatives position Proof-of-Humanity V2 not just as an identity registry, but as a full-fledged ecosystem—where human identity, UBI distribution, and public-goods funding converge under one decentralized, privacy-preserving umbrella.
