Dec 20: Shardeum has announced a partnership with Humanode to introduce biometric-based digital identity into its ecosystem, addressing one of Web3’s most persistent challenges: distinguishing real people from bots and fake accounts.
Blockchains are highly effective at verifying wallets, but they struggle to identify the humans behind them. This gap has left dApps exposed, leading to bot-driven airdrop farming, low-quality participation in campaigns, and governance systems vulnerable to manipulation. By integrating Humanode’s Biomapper, Shardeum enables applications to verify unique, real humans without compromising user privacy.
The integration allows developers to build human-aware smart contracts and dApps on Shardeum unlocking fairer airdrops, higher-quality quests, bot-resistant incentives, and more trustworthy community participation. Biometric verification is handled off-chain, with only privacy-preserving cryptographic proofs shared on-chain, ensuring that no raw biometric data is ever exposed.
Nischal Shetty, CoFounder, Shardeum said, “For Web3 to mature, it needs to recognize people, not just wallets. When humans and bots are treated the same, incentives get gamed, communities lose trust, and participation becomes superficial. By working with Humanode, we’re giving developers on Shardeum the ability to design applications around real human participation where fairness, intent, and meaningful engagement matter more than automation or scale.”
Humanode’s Biomapper is currently integrated at the application level on Shardeum, enabling builders to start experimenting with human-verified experiences today. Native SHM support is planned in a future update, further streamlining how identity and value flow across the ecosystem.
Together, Shardeum and Humanode are laying the groundwork for a more human-centric Web3 one where applications are designed around real people, not automated wallets, and where fairness, trust, and meaningful participation can scale alongside decentralization. This partnership marks a step toward ecosystems where incentives reward intent, governance reflects genuine voices, and on-chain activity represents real human engagement.
Developers and ecosystem teams can begin exploring human-verified use cases on Shardeum today by integrating Biomapper into their applications.
