PROOF OF HUMAN WORK

Proof of Human Work (PoHW) is a cryptographic protocol that preserves the human origin signal in the synthetic media era. It enables verification of authorship without identity disclosure—proving that work originated from human process, anchored by cryptographic evidence yet shielded by privacy.

The protocol operates through a four-layer architecture: Claim (content hashing), Verification (human signatures via DIDs), Registry (federated Merkle anchoring), and Retrieval (open verification endpoints).

PoHW provides a deterministic framework for proving when and by whom a work was created and approved. Rather than attempting to detect AI output, PoHW creates cryptographic proof at the moment of authorship—immutable, verifiable, and portable across centuries.

The system defines authorship as an event of integrity: a moment where human intention, content, and computation intersect. Each proof represents not identity, but authorship—a claim that a work originated from human process, anchored by cryptographic evidence yet shielded by privacy.

In the synthetic era, authorship no longer implies origin. When machines generate with fluency equal to human language, the boundary between synthesis and origin collapses. Traditional verification models depend on institutional memory—publishers, universities, and certification bodies—each vulnerable to decay, bias, and discontinuity.

PoHW provides a durable, institutional-independent standard to preserve epistemic reliability across text, image, and code for the next century. It reintroduces accountability without exposure, authorship without surveillance, and origin without ownership.

• Minimal → Durable → Ethical design philosophy
• Privacy-preserving (pseudonymous by default)
• Federated architecture (no single point of failure)
• Multi-chain anchoring (Bitcoin, Ethereum, IPFS, Arweave)
• Open verification (anyone can verify, no gatekeeping)

• Full Protocol Specification
• System Architecture
• Developer Documentation
• SDKs & Libraries
• Create Proof
• Verify Proof

Version: 1.0.0 (live draft)

Status: Active Development

Registry: proofofhumanwork.org

Primary Node: gdn.sh

• /spec — Full protocol specification (14 sections)
• /architecture — System architecture & data flows
• /whitepaper — PDF whitepaper download
• /docs — Developer documentation & APIs
• /sdk — SDKs (JavaScript, Python, Go, Rust, CLI)
• /registry — Registry node operation guide
• /attestors — Attestor framework & accreditation
• /governance — Governance model & Foundation
• /roadmap — Development roadmap & phases
• /verify — Online verification interface
• /research — Future work & research initiatives
• /foundation — Foundation mission & transparency

PoHW integrates with existing standards:

• eIDAS 2.0 (European Digital Identity)
• C2PA (Content Authenticity Initiative)
• DOIs, ORCID, Crossref (Academic Publishing)
• UETA (US Electronic Signatures)
• W3C DIDs & Verifiable Credentials

For implementation details, see Developer Documentation.