Humanode Bot Basher - The human way to get rid of bots

Online communication platforms such as Discord and Telegram have become integral to gaming and crypto projects, providing a space for communities to connect and communicate.

But unfortunately, if you run a discord server or telegram group or have anything to do with these communication channels, then you know about spam bots. Spam bots are a consistently frustrating issue.

From crypto scams to fake shilling posts, bots are driving everyone nuts.  If we talk about the Internet as a whole, 61.5% of the global traffic consists of bots. The worst affected industry is banking and finance, where 42% of the traffic is bad bots. Besides banking and finance, gaming is also one of the most affected industries, where bad bots make up 25% of all online traffic.

Of course, they aren’t all spam bots; there are good bots too, but the reason for such a huge number of bots in these industries is apparent – to spam users and carry out fraudulent activities.

These automated programs flood chat groups with unwanted messages, links, and advertisements, making it difficult for actual users to have meaningful conversations.

They can also be used to spread malware, and phishing scams, manipulate public opinions, interfere in the voting process, and distort financial markets.

Without a proper solution in place, spam bots can quickly spiral out of control, damaging the integrity of online communities and eroding trust among users. Many communities have been victims of such bot attacks, resulting in damaging outcomes, such as unfair whitelisting, where the bots occupy a large chunk of whitelist spots, and actual community members are left without a fair chance.

It gets more frustrating when these bots affect public sales and trust, which sometimes even leads to the death of projects. There are hundreds if not thousands of examples of bots ruining a project and spreading FUD.

For example, on May 6th, 2022, hackers attacked OpenSea’s official discord channel by using bots to spread fake news about partnerships with Youtube and tried to scam users by diverting them to a spam link.

In another incident, the MEE6 bot of discord was compromised resulting in the spreading of phishing site information about minting in some official discord servers.

We all know that the problem of spam bots is a pain in the neck for projects, especially for community managers, and that it could lead to devastating results. But what has been done so far to cope with bots?

Currently, there are a lot of temporary solutions that help managers and users deal with bots.

For example, general precautions like “do not open unfamiliar messages,” “contacting server admins to verify if the account sending the messages is part of their team,” “reporting the spam accounts to the admins,” “blocking the spam accounts,” “setting up some manual checks that an account must pass to enter your discord server” and so on.

Officially, Discord has implemented a feature to help users identify bot accounts. The system now automatically detects bot accounts and labels them as such so that users are aware when they are interacting with a bot rather than a real person.

Despite all these measures, spam bots are ever-growing, surpassing these checks and becoming a constant problem for communities.

The Humanode team members have also had to deal with bots in their community, and are also tired of attending AMAs in which 90% of the participants are bots. After all, Humanode is a Sybil resistant network, why can’t its communication tools be so?  

So, in order to combat the problem of spam bot attacks, the Humanode team developed a unique solution that uses cryptobiometrics technology. The system allows Discord communities to safeguard their servers from various bot attacks, such as spreading misinformation, mass spamming, or manipulating whitelisting and decision-making.

To keep it simple, we named it the Humanode Bot Basher, a bot designed to bash the bad bots but in a human way.

What is Humanode Bot Basher and How Does it Work?

The Humanode Bot Basher is specifically designed to provide protection and peace of mind for discord and Telegram communities.

Bot Basher links a Discord or a Telegram profile to a verified human identity through bioauthentication. Each user will be able to authenticate one account/profile, proving that there is an actual human being behind that account/profile.

The bioauthentication is based on Humanode cryptobiometrics. If you are unaware of how the Humanode biometric authentication works, please read Humanode 101 series.

In simple terms, Humanode bioauthentication checks if a person is a unique human being and is alive. So if you’re worried about anonymity, bot basher will never be able to identify who you are.

As it doesn’t ask for any personal info to verify the identity, the user’s privacy is protected, and the only information the servers will get is that the account/profile is backed by a unique individual. Meaning that you will still be in charge of your privacy, use a pseudo name, and be anonymous over the internet, but at the same time will prove that you are a real human being, not a bot.

Those running a server with Bot Basher installed can automatically assign a role to the bioauthenticated users, giving them access to “bot free” areas and making it easy to control important project activities by only allowing bioauthenticated accounts to participate in specified activities or access specific information.

The good news for the users is that once a user authenticates an account, it is labeled as “bioauthenticated” in any server that has integrated the Humanode Bot Basher. Meaning that you won’t need to bioauthenticate every time you join a server.

Integrating Bot Basher into Your Discord Server

The bot is easy to integrate and set up and can be launched on your server by following a few easy steps.

You might be wondering How it works? Read this guide to learn in detail about how the Humanode Bot Basher works and how projects can integrate it into their servers: How to integrate Humanode Bot Basher.

Or Simply follow these steps to integrate Bot Basher.

1. Join the Humanode Bot Basher's official server
2. Once you enter the server, find Humanode Bot Basher among users, tap on it and click "Add to server.”
3. Select a server you'd like to add the bot to and Click "Authorize"
4. Navigate to the server where you've added the bot basher, and go to "Server settings" -> Roles. Select the role you want to use the bot for or create a new one. Select the "Links" tab and click on "Add requirements." You can add certain requirements for each role that the users must fulfill to get the role.
5. Select "Humanode Bot Basher" in the Apps section, tap on the switcher to enable it, and click "Save Changes".

As an example, let’s say you hold an art contest and ask the community to vote for the best art pieces. Now, if you do not have Bot Basher integrated, spammy contestants could use automated votes to get a large chunk of fake votes. This will not only result in unfair contests but will also be discouraging for community members.  

With Humanode Bot Basher, you can specify the community members who are eligible to vote. To do this, you can assign a role to the verified users(Let’s say “Voter” in this case). Those who want to participate in voting can get the Voter role only if they are verified through Humanode Bot Basher. This will ensure that only real people participate in the voting process. Similarly, for fair whitelisting, you have the option to filter spammy bots and distribute the whitelisting spot to only real community members.

The bioauthentication for the Humanode bot basher will cost a small fee that every user who enrolls has to pay. Initially, the fee is $1 for each profile authentication per year.

But if a server owner wants to customize the bio authentication, that too is also possible. You can either choose complete bioauthentication– which includes the uniqueness and liveness checks or opt for only one of the features, i.e., Uniqueness or Liveness.

For now, the fee is to be paid in ETH and ERC-20 stablecoins by using any compatible wallet which will be converted into HMND tokens using a bridge that is under development and will be rolled out soon. Also, a way to natively pay in HMND will be added shortly.

Bot Basher for Discord Members (Users)

As an individual, you can get a linked role in the server and your profile authenticated by joining any server that has Bot Basher integrated. To authenticate, you’ll have to go to the server settings and click “Linked Roles” and select the role you want to get.

Once you do that, you’ll be directed to the authentication page. Follow the specified instructions and you’ll be assigned the linked role and authenticated.

For community members in Humanode Discord server, we are offering a beta version where you could try the bot basher.

Note that this beta version is exclusively for Humanode community members and is available for a short time (2 weeks to be specific) ;) You can also join the discord community here.

Humanode Bot Basher is built on the Humanode network. It is a practical use case of Humanode’s cryptobiometrics technology and a significant step towards Humanode’s goal of achieving Sybil resistance and fair distribution.

As the Humanode Bot Basher is a community owned product, the fees collected from the Humanode Bot Basher bioauthentication will be distributed among the validators on the Humanode Mainnet. This system is put in place to ensure that the validators are fairly compensated for their role in maintaining the network.