Proof of Humanity vs BrightID

Proof of Humanity (PoH) excels at providing a robust, one-person-one-vote guarantee by leveraging social verification and video submission. This creates a high-cost, high-friction barrier to entry, making Sybil attacks economically unfeasible. For example, its registry secures over $35M in TVL across protocols like Kleros and UBI, demonstrating its trusted integration for governance and airdrops where identity uniqueness is paramount.

BrightID takes a different approach by using a decentralized web of trust and real-time verification events, avoiding the need for personally identifiable information (PII) or centralized arbiters. This results in a key trade-off: significantly lower user friction and greater privacy, but a probabilistic rather than absolute guarantee of uniqueness. Its model is optimized for frequent, low-stakes verifications, as seen in its integration with Gitcoin Grants and RabbitHole.

The key trade-off: If your priority is maximum Sybil resistance for high-value allocations or governance (e.g., token distributions, DAO voting), choose Proof of Humanity for its cryptographic and social certainty. If you prioritize user privacy, scalability, and frictionless onboarding for recurring attestations (e.g., recurring airdrops, access gating), choose BrightID for its efficient, privacy-preserving model.

Proof of Humanity excels at providing a high-assurance, Sybil-resistant identity layer because it requires a video submission, social verification, and a deposit that can be challenged. For example, its on-chain registry underpins critical systems like Universal Basic Income (UBI) token distributions and Gitcoin Grants for quadratic funding, where the cost of a fake identity is high. Its Ethereum-based, decentralized arbitration system (Kleros) creates a strong, albeit slower and more expensive, trust anchor.

BrightID takes a different approach by using off-chain, decentralized social graph analysis to establish uniqueness without collecting personal biometric data. This results in a key trade-off: superior user privacy and faster, gas-free verification, but potentially lower initial Sybil resistance for high-value applications. Its architecture is designed for scalability, supporting integrations across multiple ecosystems like Celo, Gnosis Chain, and Arbitrum without on-chain bottlenecks.

The key trade-off: If your priority is maximum Sybil resistance for high-stakes governance or direct value distribution (e.g., airdrops, grants), and you can accept higher user friction and gas costs, choose Proof of Humanity. If you prioritize user privacy, scalability, and a seamless onboarding experience for frequent, lower-value attestations (e.g., event ticketing, community access), choose BrightID. For many projects, a hybrid model using BrightID for initial filtering and PoH for final high-value attestations may be optimal.