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Humanity unveils Proof of Trust to fight AI-driven identity fraud

Thursday, February 19, 2026 — 16:46:30 (UTC)

Humanity Unveils Proof of Trust to Fight AI-Driven Identity Fraud

Humanity introduces a new verification framework to prove real users and attributes across apps without storing personal sensitive data

The upgrade combats AI-driven fraud by creating a global trust layer for the internet

Humanity is releasing a Web2-focused SDK, which will allow off-chain apps to verify specific user credentials

Hong Kong, 19 February 2026: Humanity, a technology startup building the internet’s trust layer, today announced a major platform evolution: a transition from its original Proof of Humanity mechanism to Proof of Trust.

Humanity’s Proof of Trust is a broader consensus framework that will enable organizations to verify and prove user information without collecting and storing sensitive userdata, creating the new standard of trust for the internet in the age of AI.

The upgrade comes as artificial intelligence accelerates synthetic identities and large-scale digital manipulation, contributing to a 311% increase in synthetic identity document fraud in North America. As the cost of generating convincing personas and coordinated brigadiering decreases, traditional signals of authenticity, such as followers, engagement metrics, and verification badges, are becoming increasingly unreliable.

Humanity initially focused on confirming users as unique, real individuals through palm biometrics and zero-knowledge proofs. Proof of Trust expands Humanity’s original Proof of Humanity, allowing users to prove age, residency, education, employment, and other identity traits without exposing or storing personal data. Proof of Humanity answers the question of whether a user is real and Proof of Trust takes this a step further to prove a wide range of facts besides whether they are human or a bot by using zero-knowledge proofs to aggregate personal information already stored by organizations, Humanity is able to unlock nearly unlimited use cases for corporations worldwide. For instance, Humanity’s recent Mastercard integration will allow apps that tap into Humanity to verify Proof of Funds via Mastercard’s Open Finance rails.

“As AI transforms the internet from a network of people into a network of people alongside autonomous agents, the ability to verify who is real and which claims are credible becomes foundational infrastructure, on par with payments, cloud, and cybersecurity. Every major digital sector, including social platforms, financial services, marketplaces, gaming, education, healthcare, and governance, relies on identity, access, reputation, and compliance, yet most still operate on fragile, easily manipulated signals,” said Terence Kwok, Founder of Humanity.

“As synthetic identities and automated behavior scale, the demand for privacy-preserving, portable trust primitives will expand across billions of users and trillions of dollars of economic activity. The opportunity is the creation of a global trust standard for the AI economy.”

Humanity has also published its Trust Manifesto alongside the technical upgrade. The manifesto calls for a digital identity model built on four pillars: personal data that remains under user control, with only cryptographically proven claims shared and never raw data; a global identity layer that is non-invasive, accessible, and fair to all humans; trust infrastructure held by a decentralized network with open verification and credential issuance rather than by a central authority; and identity proofs and credentials that function across applications, primarily Web2 environments, without leaking personal data.

The release of developer APIs built exclusively for traditional applications opens the protocol to mainstream adoption. Non-blockchain applications can now integrate human verification and trust services directly into authentication flows, access controls, and credential workflows without any blockchain expertise or major overhauls to their existing systems. Use cases span social platforms seeking to verify real users, financial services streamlining KYC without storing sensitive data, authentication systems adding trust-based fraud prevention, and real-world asset ownership verification.

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About Humanity

Humanity is the trust layer of the internet. It enables users to prove any facts about themselves with portable and private credentials. Through our Proof-of-Trust network, anyone can verify identity, eligibility, or access without revealing private data. It replaces assumptions with credentials, creating a safer, more trusted digital world.

For more information, please visit www.humanity.org/

Media Contact: Laura Drndalovski Account Manager laura@lunapr.io

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Source: Company press release.

Categories: New Product