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the infinite

game

(sybil resistance)

Kevin Owocki - DevCon - Oct 2022

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Kevin Owocki

memelord

Kevin Olsen

Engineering Lead

Kevin McAllister

Fictional Character

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Agenda

Sybil resistance is an important problem to address.

Characterizing the sybil resistance game.

A sybil resistance money lego.

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How many of you have used Gitcoin Grants? ✋

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How Gitcoin Grants Works

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QF Multiplies Matching

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$69mm in results

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But there is a problem!

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Gitcoin w/o Sybil Resistence = a castle in the sky

Gitcoin

Grants

QF

Sybil Resistence

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Big Oppy! 1 Human 1 Vote DAOS

1 token = 1 vote

1 human = 1 vote

Dominated by capital

Dominated by people

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In between 1t1v + 1p1v

How much influence you purchase

How much you value a given public good

One dollar one vote

How much influence you purchase

How much you value a given public good

Quadratic voting

How much influence you purchase

How much you value a given public good

One person one vote

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Sybil Resistence

quadratic funding

quadratic voting

Gini coefficient measurements

UBI

one-person-one-vote DAOs

data collectives

Human-centric DAOs

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Agenda

Sybil resistance is an important problem to address.

Characterizing the sybil resistance game.

A sybil resistance money lego.

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Meet your

adversaries

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Script Kiddies

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Petty Criminals

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Rational Economic Actors

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Solana Defi Devs

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Organized Crime

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Nation States

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Characterizing

the sybil

resistance game

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Criteria 0:

Adversarial Nature

Any funds that can be captured, will be captured.

Diversity of adversaries, you need to have something that works against all of them

There are different sophistication levels for each of these adversaries. A script kiddie may lack the skills, organization, and conviction to pull off a sophisticated attack, whereas organized crime & nation states may have nearly infinite budgets, skills, organization, and conviction to attack a system. More sophisticated adversaries will grow & evolve over time, which requires either (1) constant vigilance or (2) systemic anti-fragility on behalf of DAOs that function as digital identity providers.

Adversaries have different motivations. Some adversaries may be in it for the money. Some are in it for the lolz. Some are in it to help you, some are in it to pwn you. Some are just bored and seeking a thrill.

Different adversaries may attempt attacks that are diverse from one another. Some adversaries may pursue schemes that are invulnerable to biometric identity + government identity countermeasures, but are vulnerable to timing-attack countermeasures. Other adversaries may try things that are invulnerable to web of trust and presence based countermeasures, but vulnerable to biometric countermeasures.

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A diversity of adversaries

Sophistication
Motivations
methods

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There are different sophistication levels for each of these adversaries. A script kiddie may lack the skills, organization, and conviction to pull off a sophisticated attack, whereas organized crime & nation states may have nearly infinite budgets, skills, organization, and conviction to attack a system. More sophisticated adversaries will grow & evolve over time, which requires either (1) constant vigilance or (2) systemic anti-fragility on behalf of DAOs that function as digital identity providers.

Adversaries have different motivations. Some adversaries may be in it for the money. Some are in it for the lolz. Some are in it to help you, some are in it to pwn you. Some are just bored and seeking a thrill.

Different adversaries may attempt attacks that are diverse from one another. Some adversaries may pursue schemes that are invulnerable to biometric identity + government identity countermeasures, but are vulnerable to timing-attack countermeasures. Other adversaries may try things that are invulnerable to web of trust and presence based countermeasures, but vulnerable to biometric countermeasures.

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Criteria 1:

The need for

privacy-centricity & sovereignty

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1. On Chain or Off Chain Data

2. Stamps (VC)

3. Personhood Score

ETL

Aggregator

Only non-PII stored, on Ceramic

On-Chain or in-memory

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Criteria 2:

The need to avoid plutocracy

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The consent of the governed:

government's legitimacy is justified only when consented to by it’s people.

GitcoinDAO Q2 2021 delegations

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Criteria 3:

Collusion

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Criteria 4:

The need to build in systemic defensibility

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Lol no

This again?

denied!

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“Hmmm this doesnt seem to be worth my time”

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The sybil resistance battleground…

Grants Rounds 1

$ 25k matching

End Users

QF

Grants

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The sybil resistance battleground…

Grants Rounds 14

Oversight via Governance

$ 3m matching

End Users

Pairwise

QF

Grants

Passport

Other dApps

Grant Approvals

Grant Reviewers

Data team 2

Open data

Data team 2

Data team 1

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Criteria 5:

Modularity & Forkability

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Criteria 6:

Decentralization

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1. On Chain or Off Chain Data

2. Stamps (VC)

3. Personhood Score

ETL

Aggregator

Add Your Own Stamp

What data should Passport be consuming that can contribute to sybil resistance?

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1. On Chain or Off Chain Data

2. Stamps (VC)

3. Personhood Score

ETL

Aggregator

Add Your Own Scoring Algo

Is Gitcoin’s algorithm bad? You should fork it and create a new one. Want to add a scoring algorithm for something different?

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1. On Chain or Off Chain Data

2. Stamps (VC)

3. Personhood Score

ETL

Aggregator

Add Personhood Score to your dApp

Need sybil resistance in your app? Add it using the Passport SDK.

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Criteria 7:

The need to build network effects

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More users

More stamps

More dapps

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Criteria 8:

The evolutionary nature of this game

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Grants Rounds 14

Oversight via Governance

$ 3m matching

End Users

Pairwise

QF

Grants

Passport

Other dApps

Grant Approvals

Grant Reviewers

Data team 2

Open data

Data team 2

Data team 1

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4 ways to create sybil resistence

Gov’t IDs
Biometric
Web of Trust
Presence-Based

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4 ways to create sybil resistence

	Pros	Cons
Govt IDs	Large distribution	Vulnerable to rogue nation-states Privacy/Sovereignty
Biometric	Large distribution Everyone has biometrics	Irrevocable Distribution of biometric hardware is hard
Web of Trust	Decentralized, Privacy, & Sovereignty-Preserving	Can be Plutocratic if capital used
Presence-Based	Easy to get	Inconvenient / High Friction

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Agenda

Sybil resistance is an important problem to address.

Characterizing the sybil resistance game.

A sybil resistance money lego.

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privacy & sovereignty

avoid

collusion

avoid plutocracy

systemic defensibility

network effects

modularity & forkability

decentralization

embrace evolutionary nature

What will

Gitcoin Grants

round 69

look like?

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privacy & sovereignty

avoid

collusion

avoid plutocracy

systemic defensibility

network effects

modularity & forkability

decentralization

embrace evolutionary nature

plurality

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Integrate it

into your dapp

with 1 LOC

docs.passport.gitcoin.co

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docs.passport.gitcoin.co