Animoca Brands to Invest $30M in Web3 Financial App hi for Proof of Human Identity Solution

The two companies will collaborate on a number of web3 initiatives focused on boosting the hi ecosystem, anchored by the hi app, and the hi Protocol (hiP) – a scalable, EVM compatible, Sybil-resistant layer-2 sidechain for Ethereum. hiP offers uses smart contract and blockchain to power global payment services at zero cost.

The partnership will also enable hi users to spend and be rewarded with certain tokens used in the Animoca Brands ecosystem, including SAND, EDU, APE, REVV, GMEE, and others.

In addition, both companies will work to provide developers with a unique-human authentication mechanism through hiP’s groundbreaking Proof of Human Identity (PoHI) solution. While specific details of this collaboration are currently limited, it appears that hi is in pursuit of establishing itself as a prominent global ID and web3 financial system alongside Worldcoin.

Yat Siu, the co-founder and executive chairman of Animoca Brands, said: “We are looking forward to investing in and partnering with hi, which is committed to bridging the gap between the fiat and cryptocurrency worlds. As part of this partnership we will collaborate with hi on its continued development of the hi App and the hi Protocol to drive positive impact for the broader Web3 ecosystem.”

If successful, this PoHI solution could rival Worldcoin’s recently launched World ID, a proof of humanity solution which has raised concerns regarding the project’s iris-scanning device, the Orb. The PoHI solution developed by hiP could also prove that there are other ways to identify unique human beings without having to develop hardware for scanning irises. 

In an interview with Metaverse Post, Akarsh Sanghi, the Head of Product & Engineering at Worldcoin, explained that the Worldcoin team came to the conclusion that they needed to scan irises to avoid false positives and negatives as well as fraud in the system.

“Essentially, the idea is that there is a lot of entropy, which means you can have enough data points to be able to differentiate one person from the other. Otherwise, you have other biometric features, you have enough false positives and false negatives, that after a certain point, you will either reject everyone or you will accept everyone, which you don’t want. You can have a lot of fraud in the system. The team basically did all this R&D and came to the conclusion that they need to use biometrics. And within biometrics, they need to use iris,” Sanghi said.

In 2022, hi announced the world’s first debit card featuring NFT avatar customization, powered by Mastercard. With over 3.5 million users and 1 million KYC-ed users, the first cards are shipping in Q3 2023. Cardholders can personalize their debit card with an NFT avatar they own and use it to spend fiat and digital currencies at over 90 million locations worldwide.