Gitcoin Passport vs Proof of Humanity: Aggregated Credentials vs Primary Verification

Gitcoin Passport excels at scalable, composable reputation by aggregating verifiable credentials from dozens of sources like BrightID, ENS, and Coinbase. This creates a portable, non-binary 'stamp' score, enabling applications like Sybil-resistant quadratic funding. For example, its integration with Optimism's RetroPGF rounds has processed over 1.5 million Passport submissions to filter out bots, demonstrating its strength for permissionless, application-layer identity.

Proof of Humanity (PoH) takes a fundamentally different approach by establishing a primary, one-to-one human verification via video submission, social verification, and a dispute mechanism on-chain. This results in a binary, sovereign credential (a UBI token) but creates a trade-off: higher assurance at the cost of slower, more manual onboarding and lower scalability, with the registry growing to approximately 20,000 verified humans over several years.

The key trade-off: If your priority is high-throughput, low-friction Sybil resistance for dApps (e.g., airdrops, governance), choose Gitcoin Passport. If you prioritize cryptographic certainty of unique humanity for high-value, binary rights (e.g., universal basic income, supreme court juries), choose Proof of Humanity.

Gitcoin Passport excels at creating a low-friction, composable identity layer by aggregating existing credentials from sources like BrightID, ENS, and Coinbase Verification. This approach prioritizes user experience and scalability, evidenced by its integration into over 500+ projects and the issuance of millions of stamps. Its modular, score-based system (Passport Score) allows developers to easily set custom thresholds for sybil resistance without forcing users through a single, rigorous gate.

Proof of Humanity takes a fundamentally different approach by serving as a primary, canonical source of verification via video submission and social vouching. This results in a higher assurance, binary attestation (you are either a verified human or not) but creates significant user friction and lower scalability, with the registry containing approximately 20K verified profiles. Its strength is in applications requiring maximal sybil resistance and legal accountability, such as universal basic income (UBI) distributions or quadratic funding rounds where identity uniqueness is paramount.

The key architectural trade-off is between convenience and certainty. Gitcoin Passport offers a probabilistic defense by stacking signals, while Proof of Humanity provides a deterministic, one-to-one human mapping. Your choice dictates the sybil attack surface you are willing to accept versus the onboarding burden you impose.

Consider Gitcoin Passport if your priority is mainstream adoption, gas-efficient integrations (via EAS attestations), and flexible sybil scoring for use cases like retroactive funding, governance, or allowlists. Its ecosystem of verifiers and Allo Protocol integrations make it the pragmatic choice for scaling decentralized applications.

Choose Proof of Humanity when your application's core value proposition depends on absolute, cryptographically guaranteed uniqueness and you can accept a smaller, slower-growing user base. It is the definitive solution for UBI, identity-native DAOs, or any context where a single forged identity would critically undermine the system's integrity.