How Do ‘Proof-of-Personhood’ Mechanisms Work in a Decentralized Context?

Proof-of-personhood (PoP) mechanisms aim to cryptographically verify that a user is a unique, real human being, not a bot or a Sybil attacker. Methods include biometric scanning, social graph verification, or a web of trust established through vouching by existing verified users.

The goal is to assign one vote or one identity to one person, rather than one token. This is critical for systems like quadratic voting to prevent one entity from splitting tokens across multiple wallets to gain disproportionate power.