Human Collectives

Zero-Knowledge Proof of Human Collective with Bio-Authenticated Sybil-Resistance from HUMΔNODE.

Proof-of-Collective

Human collectives are comprised of zero, one, or more unique humans.

Inclusion: (Membership) Wtih zero-knowledge cryptographic proofs, a human can prove that they are a member of a particular collective (a group of humans) while remaining anonymous and not revealing any identifying information.

Exclusion: (Non-Membership) A human can also prove that they are not within a particular collective, without revealing their identity.

Other humans or automated systems can verify the proofs of collective inclusion or exclusion. Cryptographic assets are provided to generate and verify proofs within a browser as a Decentralized Application (dApp). A solidity library is provided to verify the zero-knowledge proofs on-chain within smart contracts.

Collectives may function as a Decentralized Identifier (DID). In the case of a collective of only a single human, it may function as a bio-authenticated DID for that human. A human can create and destroy any number of such identifiers, which only they have bio-authenticated access to.

Membership to collectives may be administered in a number of ways. Collectives may offer public access for any bio-authenticated human to join and leave at will or collective access may be protected by a secret code to selectively grant membership to other humans. A collective with managed membership may have members manually added or removed by the collective creator(s). In any case, a collective is only ever comprised of unique humans as verified by the HUMΔNODE system.

How it works

For each human collective, a Sparse Merkle Tree is created and maintained. When a human joins or is added to a collective, a cryptographic hash of their unique bio-authenticated identifier (from HUMΔNODE) is added as a node to the collective's merkle tree. Likewise, when a human leaves a collective, the corresponding node is removed from the merkle tree. The merkle tree is used within the process of generating and verifying ZK-proofs of collective (non-)membership.

A zero-knowledge proof of collective human identity basically consits of a set of private inputs, public inputs, and a verifiable output of cryptographic proof of collective inclusion or exclusion. The cryptographic proofs are built with zkSNARK circuits and tools provided by iden3.

Project Facilitations

• enable bio-authenticated humans to create, join, and leave collectives
• polls; ask a collective a question, members vote, and see results (sybil-resistant voting)
• membership-managed collectives as biometric black- or white- list databases
• user interface for generating and verifying proofs
• solidity smart contracts and utilities for on-chain proofs
• API for other systems to build and/or verify proofs

Disclaimer

This project is not yet ready for production deployments.

Configuration

Copy then edit the example environment file for installation specifics.

cp env.example .env

Example Configuration

########################################################################
# Node.js
########################################################################

# Humanode OAuth2 credentials
AUTH_HUMANODE_CLIENT_ID="XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"
AUTH_HUMANODE_CLIENT_SECRET="XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"
AUTH_HUMANODE_URI_CALLBACK="http://localhost:3000/callback"
AUTH_HUMANODE_URI_ISSUER="https://auth.staging.oauth2.humanode.io/"
AUTH_HUMANODE_URI_JWKS="https://auth.staging.oauth2.humanode.io/.well-known/jwks.json"

# cookie session secret
SESSION_SECRET="XXXXXXXXXXXXXX"

# bypass bio-authentication for local development, set the given UserId
# DEV_HACK_AUTHENTICATED_USER=1


########################################################################
# Docker
########################################################################

# top-level host directory for persisted files
HOST_DIR=/srv

# collectives
HOSTNAME=example.com
REPO=local
TAG=latest

# nginx-proxy
# [email protected]

Development

Requirements

• iden3/circom zkSNARK circuit compiler written in Rust
• Node.js >= 16

Run

npm install

While a more formal installation should involve some manual attention to circuit building and cryptographic setup, this script will build the zkSNARK circuits to get an installation up and going.

scripts/init-zk.sh

npm run dev

Access http://localhost:3000 in a local browser.

Test

npm run test

Lint

npm run lint

Database

Migrations

cd db
npx knex migrate:make <name>

Production Deployment

scripts/init-zk.sh
npm run build
npm run start

The app is powered by Remix which offers several deployment methods and templates.

Docker

Optional Reverse Proxy with SSL

For automated SSL certificate generation, start nginx-proxy and acme-companion with:

docker compose --profile proxy up -d

for Production

docker compose --profile production up -d

for Development

The docker image includes all requirements, like circom, and may also be used for development. The source files will be mapped into the docker container as a volume and can be edited real-time from the host (although user/group permission side-effects could occur).

To run the container(s), watching the logs:

docker compose --profile development up

To enter the running container in a separate terminal, for example:

docker exec -ti collectives /bin/bash
cd /app

API & Proof/Verification Assets

• /collectives/<id>/data.json
• /zk/collective-verifier/circuit.wasm
• /zk/collective-verifier/circuit_final.zkey
• /zk/collective-verifier/verification_key.json
• /zk/collective-verifier/verifier.sol

DX

Elements used by this project include:

• Full Stack
  • remix-run/remix: full stack web framework with React; Create modern, resilient user experiences with web fundamentals
  • tailwindcss: utility-first CSS framework for rapid UI development
  • daisyui: tailwind CSS component library
  • eslint: pluggable linting utility for JavaScript and JSX
  • mocha: simple, flexible, fun javascript test framework
  • chai: BDD / TDD assertion framework
  • prettier: opinionated code formatter
  • prettier-plugin-tailwindcss: prettier plugin for Tailwind CSS
• Database
  • knex: SQL query builder; flexible, portable, and fun to use
• Solidity
  • Hardhat: Ethereum development environment to compile, run, and deploy smart contracts
  • hardhat-waffle: tooling for smart contract tests
  • TypeChain: TypeScript bindings for Ethereum smart contracts
  • ethers.js: Ethereum library and wallet implementation
  • solhint: solidity linting utility
  • solidity-coverage: code coverage for solidity smart-contracts
  • prettier-plugin-solidity: prettier plugin for solidity
• Zero-Knowledge Proof
  • iden3/circom: zkSnark circuit compiler, written in Rust
  • iden3/circomlib: Library of basic circuits for circom
  • iden3/circomlibjs: Javascript library to work with circomlib circuits
  • iden3/circom_tester: Tools for testing circom circuits
  • iden3/snarkjs: zkSNARK implementation in JavaScript & WASM, PowersOfTau files
• Template
  • xendarboh/remix-stack-minimal-humanode: Minimal Remix Stack with Humanode OAuth2, typsescript, tailwind, linting, and formatting

Developing Ideas and WIP

• collectives as sub- or super- sets of other collectives, can faciliate roles
• on-chain merkle tree root and nodes (in IPFS) for timestamping memberships
• zk-proof-of-consensus of collective (anonymous voting)
• support developing DID standards, continue to abstract one-and-many identifiers
• use ZKP to protect access to on-chain resources with biometric identifier as the key
• Kwil Decentralized Database for SQL on blockchain using kwildb-query-builder

What Else

More advanced human-collective verification possibilities and membership features are vast. A collective could represent DAO membership, a family, a group of friends, a geographic region, verified qualifications (like age, KYC, etc). Membership could have automated requirements such as paid subscriptions and/or expirations.