The architects of the Open Network (TONNE) ecosystem have allocated $5 million in Toncoin tokens as a means of encouraging users to employ cutting-edge palm scanning technology to authenticate themselves.

Users taking part in the optional proof-of-personhood programme will receive one million Toncoin from TONNE Society, a community of developers and contributors expanding the TONNE ecosystem. Over the course of the next five years, the project seeks to provide digital identity verification for Telegram users.

The project enables users to authenticate themselves as human beings on the blockchain using technologies developed by HumanCode. Users can scan their palms with a smartphone using an application that can be found on Google Play and the Apple Store.

Information sent to Cointelegraph claims that the technology protects anonymity and is independent of hardware, enabling the scanner to be utilised on a range of mobile devices

TON Foundation growth director Ekin Tuna said that supporting proof-of-personhood protocols like HumanCode is a step toward a practical reputation system with real-life use cases for TON’s ecosystem:

“A scalable, private, and decentralized identity will help to onboard the first one billion users to the Web3 ecosystem in Telegram.”

HumanCode founder Tim Zhang tells Cointelegraph that the technology securely scans a human palm by extracting the pattern directly onto a user's smartphone device.

“This local extraction ensures the pattern is non-reversible, meaning that even if someone were to gain unauthorized access to our server, reconstructing the palm images from the patterns would be impossible,” Zhang explains.

The founder added that the system maintains U.S. SOC2 data security and privacy certifications and implements a triple-layer privacy protection mechanism. The first step involves local extraction of the user’s unique palm pattern, preventing personal information from being transferred off the device.

To protect the data during transmission, the extracted feature is encrypted before being sent to HumanCode servers. Sensitive information does not need to be sent to outside servers because the verification procedure is carried out locally on the user's device.

Members of the TONNE Society who successfully complete a palm scan and verify their identity will receive HumanCode incentives. Before individuals are compensated for their involvement, a soulbound token is then created as a representation of their confirmed digital identity.

Given that Worldcoin has faced criticism for its iris-scanning technology, Cointelegraph also noted a rise in scepticism towards proof-of-personhood technologies.

Over the past six months, regulatory oversight and investigations have focused on the company's iris-scanning equipment and data collection processes in Hong Kong, Spain, and France.

Zhang said HumanCode’s use of robust security protocols and encryption is an important trust-bridging factor, while suggesting that users might feel less intimidated about scanning their hands instead of their eyes:

“From our experience, palm recognition technology is inherently more acceptable. For most people, scanning your palm with a smartphone camera just feels less intrusive than eye-scanning.”

Zhang also said the technology can potentially combat bots and fraudulent accounts on any social media platform by verifying the authenticity of users through unique palm patterns. This allows a platform to effectively distinguish between real users and automated bots.

In March, the TON Foundation allocated 30 million Toncoin, worth around $115 million, for various community rewards to drive adoption.

The incentives are being allocated to four different areas: $38 million worth of TON will go to token mining and user incentives, $22 million for airdrops, $15 million for the League developer ecosystem, and $40 million for liquidity pool boosts.

In March 2024, the TONNE blockchain-powered Telegram Ad Platform was online. Through the platform, Telegram channel owners can earn money globally. Advertising is sold only through the channel, and revenue is shared with the owners in TONNE.