Gitcoin Passport
A decentralized identity and proof-of-humanity system used to verify that a wallet is operated by a real person. Donations in quadratic funding rounds only count toward matching if the donor holds a Passport score above a threshold (commonly 50+).
Gitcoin Passport is a decentralized identity protocol designed to give wallet addresses a "sybil-resistance" score. The score represents how confident the system is that a given wallet belongs to a unique human, not a bot or a single person controlling many wallets. Passport is most widely used in quadratic funding rounds to ensure the matching pool is distributed based on genuine community support rather than coordinated wallet farming.
How the Score Works
A Passport score is built from "stamps" — cryptographic attestations that the holder has completed specific identity challenges. Each stamp contributes a weighted number of points to the total score. Common stamps include:
- Google, GitHub, LinkedIn, Discord, Twitter — proving control of established social accounts.
- ENS, Lens, Farcaster — proving ownership of Web3 identity records.
- Holonym phone verification — proving control of a unique phone number.
- Gitcoin Passport Proof of Personhood — additional attestations.
Each stamp is verifiable on-chain. Rounds set a minimum score threshold (often 50) that donors must meet for donations to count toward matching.
Why It Matters for QF
Quadratic funding rewards projects based on the number of unique donors. Without a sybil-resistance layer, a single actor could create hundreds of wallets and donate $1 from each, manufacturing artificial community support and siphoning matching funds. Passport solves this: only wallets that pass the score threshold contribute to the matching calculation, and the threshold is tuned to make farming expensive enough to not be worth it.
Getting a Passport Score
- Go to passport.gitcoin.co.
- Connect the wallet you plan to donate from.
- Add stamps until your score reaches the required threshold. Most users can pass 50+ in under 10 minutes using free stamps (Google, GitHub, LinkedIn, Discord, ENS).
- Confirm the score before donating to a QF round.
Limitations
Passport scores are not perfect proof of humanity. They make sybil attacks expensive, not impossible. Determined attackers can still accumulate stamps across many wallets, but the cost in time and verification difficulty makes large-scale farming impractical. Round organizers also apply statistical analysis to detect unusual donation patterns, layered on top of the Passport threshold.
Related Round Mechanics
Some rounds add additional boosts on top of the base score. For example, the Ethereum Security QF round run by Giveth in partnership with TheDAO Security Fund grants badge-holders approximately 2x matching impact — a layer on top of standard Passport verification. These layered mechanisms let rounds experiment with amplifying specific kinds of voices (proven experts, long-term ecosystem contributors) without abandoning the core sybil-resistance property.
Articles Using This Term
Learn more about Gitcoin Passport in these articles:
Related Terms
Quadratic Funding
A funding mechanism that amplifies donations based on the number of unique supporters rather than total amount raised. Used by Gitcoin, Giveth, and Optimism for public goods funding.
Sybil Attack
An attack where a single entity creates many pseudonymous identities (wallets, accounts, nodes) to gain disproportionate influence in a system that assumes one-entity-one-identity. Common in airdrops, DAO governance, quadratic voting, and public-goods funding.
Matching Pool
A pool of funds contributed by sponsors and distributed to projects in a quadratic funding round based on the community's donation pattern. The matching pool amplifies the impact of small donations from many supporters.
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