Interesting concept, but I'm skeptical about the passport verification solving the core problem.
The issue isn't just proving you're human - it's proving you're a unique human without creating a honeypot of identity data. Hashing name+DOB+country+last4digits helps, but state actors (as you mention) can absolutely rainbow-table this. And if a government wants to run influence ops, they'll just use real passports from real people (employees, contractors, or bought credentials).
The bigger challenge: even if you verify I'm human, how do you stop me from being paid to post propaganda? A verified human account spreading misinformation is arguably more dangerous than a bot, because now it carries the "verified human" trust signal.
I think the real solution is less about identity verification and more about social graph trust + transparent provenance. If I can see that an account was created 5 years ago, has genuine engagement patterns, and is vouched for by people I trust, that's more meaningful than "this person scanned a passport."
That said, I respect the attempt to tackle this. The bot problem is real and getting worse fast. Just not convinced passport verification is the moat you think it is.
What's your plan for preventing paid human accounts from gaming the system?
ryanmcl•1h ago
The issue isn't just proving you're human - it's proving you're a unique human without creating a honeypot of identity data. Hashing name+DOB+country+last4digits helps, but state actors (as you mention) can absolutely rainbow-table this. And if a government wants to run influence ops, they'll just use real passports from real people (employees, contractors, or bought credentials).
The bigger challenge: even if you verify I'm human, how do you stop me from being paid to post propaganda? A verified human account spreading misinformation is arguably more dangerous than a bot, because now it carries the "verified human" trust signal.
I think the real solution is less about identity verification and more about social graph trust + transparent provenance. If I can see that an account was created 5 years ago, has genuine engagement patterns, and is vouched for by people I trust, that's more meaningful than "this person scanned a passport." That said, I respect the attempt to tackle this. The bot problem is real and getting worse fast. Just not convinced passport verification is the moat you think it is.
What's your plan for preventing paid human accounts from gaming the system?