Proto-Vortex #2, new WeHMND/USDC pool, Shardeum × Biomapper, Catacomb Crawlers raise, Fireside with Graham, AI video contest, and two new publications.

TL;DR

Hello and welcome to a new issue of Humanode Biweekly, your window into what’s unfolding across the ecosystem.

We begin with the second proto-Vortex voting session, which has just wrapped and delivered our very first officially accepted proposal: a Non-Custodial Inheritance Watcher from gwumex. It might look like a small milestone from afar, but inside the Vortex experiment it feels meaningful. The system is still delicate, still taking shape, still in that early phase where every step is both a discovery and a misstep, and where mistakes aren’t failures but coordinates. For this round, the voter set was deliberately tiny, just the three Humanode founders, so we could watch the process closely without pretending it’s already polished. It isn’t. But now its contours are visible: the parts that need refining, the rules that need rewriting, and the mechanisms that will need to evolve as Vortex grows. So we’re taking a time to clean up the guidelines, refine the flow, make the next session less improvisational and more aligned with what Vortex is supposed to become. Proposal drafts remain open, and if you want to influence the future of this network, this is how people start: one idea, one submission, one attempt to shape something bigger than any of us. Once the structure is ready, we’ll invite the wider Core and those whose proposals passed the first filter to join the next vote. Slowly, deliberately, we’re building the world we want to vote in.

Meanwhile, beyond Vortex, something remarkable happened on Shardeum. They ran an EVM testnet quest that pulled in more than eleven thousand users and over a hundred thousand transactions—huge numbers. But the real story came afterward, when they decided to run their airdrop not through the usual “click, claim, hope it’s real humans” routine, but through the Humanode Biomapper. Sixty million SHM routed through biometric Sybil-resistance. Not glamorous, not flashy, just a network choosing the harder, cleaner path. In a region as active as India’s growing onchain ecosystem, that choice matters: it signals a commitment to fairness at the moment when many projects compromise. And for us, it means more people verifying with Biomapper—each verification a tiny vote for an economy where bots don’t get a seat at the table.

For LP stakers, a small but important update: the new WeHMND/USDC pool opened at a fresh contract. Daily rewards remain the same, the nonlinear model continues, and staking goes on for another six months. If you’re in the old pool, simply move your LP tokens over—rewards pick up from there. And yes, LP staking will continue across all three pools (WeHMND/USDC, WeHMND/WETH, WeHMND/WBTC). The system keeps evolving, but the core idea remains stable: a way for long-term network participants to support liquidity while earning a predictable reward stream.

Last week we sat down with Graham—co-founder of TLDR Global, early Republic builder, and self-proclaimed Blood Mage of MetaCartel—for a Fireside conversation with Dato and Victor. The mood was somewhere between philosophical and slightly ominous. The crypto industry keeps circling around one question: what does institutional adoption really do to us? Is it a bridge to legitimacy, or the slow dissolving of what made Web3 different in the first place? The conversation drifted through culture, governance, incentives, and the quiet pressure TradFi exerts on decentralization. If you missed it, the recording is there to revisit. It’s worth hearing not because there are answers, but because everyone is asking the same uneasy questions.

On a lighter note, the first Humanode AI video contest is underway. You can use any AI generator, any angle, any storytelling approach—as long as the video comes from a real human and touches something about Humanode: the vision, the one human = one node = one vote paradigm, or the emerging Vortex experiment. Eight seconds or three minutes, humorous or sincere, abstract or documentary—it all works. Post it on your platform of choice, drop the link in the Discord thread, and you’re in. The contest runs until December 17, with voting on December 18 through BotBasher’s one-human-one-vote. Some videos will get featured along the way, and we’ll reward that too. It’s chaotic creativity, but it’s ours.

We also published two new pieces recently. The first is a short speculative story told from the perspective of a voter in 2035, navigating a world where AI has entered governance and where, eventually, humanity had to rediscover the necessity of one human = one vote. The second is an essay on crypto’s long, strange journey into institutional adoption—the revolution that fought centralization, only to invite it in, hand it the keys, and call it progress. It’s a calm, clear-eyed look at how Web3 lost parts of itself without noticing, and what might still be recoverable.

In the ecosystem, Catacomb Crawlers opened their funding round on Republic. Many of you have watched the gameplay clips, and now the raise is live, with a minimum entry of $150 and a cap at $1.2M. This isn’t advice or solicitation—some will invest, some will simply wait for the game, some will just observe. That’s fine. Everything you need, including risks and terms, is on the offering page itself, and their team is answering questions publicly in the Discussion tab. Transparency over hype—that’s how a studio should raise.

This biweekly feels like a snapshot of a network in motion. 

We say it often, but it remains true: if you’re here now, you’re helping decide what this network becomes.

—The Humanode Team

🌀Vortex

The proto-Vortex voting session 2 that just ended

One proposal passed!  Hooray, and congrats to gwumex, who proposed a project for a Non‑Custodial Inheritance Watcher.

There were many intriguing proposals this round, and there was much to learn from throughout the process.

Since we had the first voting this time, we decided to have only 3 people vote - Humanode founders, to learn from mistakes, and a far from ideal process, faster. The next voting session will be more organized and with clear guidelines for both proposers and voters.

As a result, we are taking one week to polish the new guidelines, but you can still submit your drafts anytime, and we will help you polish them!

Once we are confident about the process, we will invite the whole Humanode Core and those community members who got their proposal accepted to vote.

If you want a say in the future of this network, this is where to start.

• Guidelines: https://blog.humanode.io/invitation-to-the-proto-vortex/ 
• Basic Rules: https://link.humanode.io/proto-vortex/rules
• Submit proposals: https://link.humanode.io/proto-vortex/proposals

Shardeum chose Biomapper to keep its airdrop Sybil-resistant

Shardeum recently ran an EVM Testnet quest, bringing in over 11,600 users and generating more than 105,000 transactions. What stands out is that when it came time to distribute the 60 million SHM to the winners, Shardeum took the extra step of having users go through anti-Sybil verification using the Humanode Biomapper.

This ensures that the SHM ends up in the wallets of unique, living users instead of bots or Sybil accounts. With so many people in India moving toward onchain activity, Shardeum is choosing to build their ecosystem in a way that is fair, secure, and human-first.

For Humanode, this means more people going through biomapping, which also means more real usage of HMND since each biomapping is a purchase of HMND that powers the system. It stays private, secure, and helps keep the token economy clean of bots and fake accounts.

⛓️ Cross-chain Biomapping

Over the past half-year, the focus has been on spreading Biomapper to other chains, giving developers a simple way to build Sybil-resistant dApps using Humanode’s biometric verification — without leaving their home ecosystem.Biomapper is live on:

Ethereum,  BNB Chain, Somnia, Nomis, Monad, Fuse, Talent Protocol, Orange Protocol, Wanchain, Etherlink, Soneium, Aurora Network, XRPL EVM Sidechain, Ontology EVM, Botanix, Metis, Vanar, Verax, Unichain, Nibiru, Hemi, Manta, Scroll, Arbitrum, Janction Testnet, Hyperliquid, Story, Sei Network, Sonic, Base, Filecoin, Avalanche.

If you’re building on either of these chains, you can now:

• integrate Humanode Biomapper in just a few lines of code,
• ensure each account is controlled by a unique living human,
• and build “one human = one account” systems or “proof of existence” tools.

This concludes the initial “crossbridge” campaign, but not the story. Biomapper can and will expand to other chains as demand grows.

For more information on Biomapper:

App: biomapper.hmnd.app

Tutorial: Watch here

For integration, check it out:

• Biomapper docs
• Biomapper SDK

🗺️ Humanode Ecosystem Map

A fresh snapshot of where Humanode’s tech anchors Sybil resistance and proof of personhood across Web3.

Awareness & Events

🔥Humanode Fireside

Last week, Humanode hosted a Fireside session with Graham — co-founder of TLDR Global, early Republic builder, and the infamous “Blood Mage” of MetaCartel Ventures. Together with Dato and Victor, they unpacked the big question haunting the industry right now: what does institutional adoption really mean for crypto? Is this the long-awaited path to mainstream legitimacy, or the slow absorption of Web3 into TradFi logic?

The conversation drifted from cultural shifts to incentives, decentralization pressure points, and the future of crypto-native governance.

Watch the recording here.

🎥Humanode's first AI video contest is ongoing

Don’t forget to submit your video by posting it on your favorite social media platform (like X, Instagram, or TikTok) and posting the link in the humanodes-got-talent thread in the Humanode Discord to win $300 worth of HMND!

Who can participate?Anyone — as long as there’s a real human behind the submission.

Theme:Humanode.Tell the story you find most compelling:

• Humanode in general
• the one human = one node = one vote vision
• Vortex’s cognitocratic / meritocratic liquid democracy
• or any aspect of Humanode you think the world should know

Tools:Use any AI video generator you like — free or paid.

Length:From 8 seconds up to 3 minutes.

Contest duration:Now until December 17, 2025.

Prize pool:

• 🥇 1st place: $300 in HMND
• 🥈 2nd place: $200 in HMND
• 🥉 3rd place: $100 in HMND

Videos that catch our eye during the contest may be featured on our social media.

• If your video is featured, you earn $20 in HMND, even if you don’t end up in the top 3.
• If you both win and get featured, the $20 is added on top of your prize.

Where to post:

• Post your video on your preferred social platform (ideally where you have the most followers).
• Then drop the link in the #humanodes-got-talent thread on the Humanode Discord.

Who votes?On December 18, voting opens through BotBasher-based voting on Discord.

• Anyone can vote — but you must prove you’re a unique human and get the “verified human” role (bioauthentication required, free of charge).
• One verified human = one vote.

Here’s one of the first picks from the Humanode AI Video Contest:

LP Staking

🚀🌱Just a heads up for everyone staking in the WeHMND/USDC pool

The old LP contract closed on December 1st, and the new contract has already been running since that same block. If you haven’t moved your LP tokens yet, your rewards have stopped on the old contract.

To keep earning, you’ll need to restake in the new pool:

https://mainnet.biostaker.hmnd.app/biostaker/0xA8A83f29B7c44626D08542bEcfA882980c9F87F0

Nothing else changes. Same daily 14,400 WeHMND. Same nonlinear model. Just a new contract continuing for the next 6 months.

If you haven’t switched over, now is a good time.

How to move your stake:

1. Unstake your LP tokens from the old contract.

2. Go to the new contract and stake the same LP tokens.

• Staking page: https://mainnet.biostaker.hmnd.app/
• Guide if you need it: https://link.humanode.io/guide/biodefi

Publications

Voting in 2035 - A human's account

Just dropped a fun speculative piece told from the perspective of a human voter in 2035. It explores what happens when AI joins governance and why we eventually had to return to one human = one vote.

The revolution that sold its soul

Crypto industry spent a decade fighting TradFi. Then we invited it in, called it “institutional adoption,” and handed it the steering wheel. Nobody asks what it did to the foundations of crypto. If the old gatekeepers now own the rails, then what exactly is decentralized?

This piece takes a calm look at how the revolution got absorbed, and what comes next.

Ecosystem

🕹️Catacomb Crawlers Funding Round Begins

You’ve seen the game. You’ve seen the numbers. Now the sale begins. Yes, Catacomb Crawlers’ raise is officially live on Republic.

The studio is raising up to $1.2 million, with a minimum entry of $150, and the window closes on December 13.

All the info, terms, details, and risks are laid out on the offering page itself:

https://republic.com/emeroth-studios

This is not financial advice or a push. Some of you will just play. Some will just cheer for the launch. And some of you might want to dig through the offering page and explore the details for yourself.

Whichever group you’re in, the details are on the offering page.

If you’ve got questions about the raise, make sure you put them in the Discussion section on Republic. That’s where CC’s team can answer publicly and transparently.

Let the game begin in the catacombs and beyond.

Why this matters:

Catacomb Crawlers is the first project deploying on the Humanode chain, running its marketplace on Biomapper-powered Sybil-resistant infrastructure.They’re also one of the earliest recipients of Humanode’s $10M Ecosystem Fund.

🎮 Try it yourself:

iOS | Android

MISC

For more information, check out Humanode’s:

▲ Website

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