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Reference.org
Proof of personhood
open-in-new
<p>Proof of personhood (PoP) is a means of resisting malicious attacks on peer to peer networks, particularly, attacks that utilize multiple fake identities, otherwise known as a <a href="/facts/Sybil_attack/fqa8J81a">Sybil attack</a>. Decentralized online platforms are particularly vulnerable to such attacks by their very nature, as notionally democratic and responsive to large voting blocks. In PoP, each unique human participant obtains one equal unit of voting power, and any associated rewards. </p><p>The term is used in for cryptocurrency and blockchains as a parallel to <a href="/facts/Proof_of_work/GKI1LcQU">proof of work</a>, <a href="/facts/Proof_of_stake/92d8b2Qp">proof of stake</a>, and other <a href="/facts/Consensus_(computer_science)/rC0eH88V">consensus</a> mechanisms which attempt to distribute voting power and rewards to participants proportionately to an investment of resources. </p>