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Username & proof of personhood

Claim a human-readable username in the Polkadot app and understand the proof-of-personhood tier attached to it. Some features, such as reserving certain .dot domains or using apps that allow only one action per person, need that signal before they can treat an account as a distinct human.

What a username and personhood are

A username is a short, readable name that stands in for your account's long technical address — easier to share and to recognise. When you claim one, the app registers you on the People chain as a lite person.

Personhood is the network's way of expressing "this account belongs to a distinct human", without exposing who you are. There are two tiers:

  • Lite — earned by registering an attested username. This is the tier most users reach.
  • Full — reached by redeeming an invitation, which provides stronger, one-account-per-human assurance.

Apps and smart contracts can read your tier through an on-chain interface and adjust what they offer accordingly. In practice, an app only needs to know whether you have no personhood, Lite personhood, or Full personhood.

Your privacy is preserved

When an app checks your personhood, it does not receive your identity. It receives a per-application alias — a pseudonym unique to that one app — so the same person cannot be tracked or linked across different apps.

Before you start

You need an account with a small amount of devnet funds. If you have not set one up yet, follow Create an account & get funds first.

Download links for the app are in Get the app.

Claim a username

  1. Open the app and go to the profile or identity section, then choose to claim a username.
  2. Enter a base name. The app validates it for you and will tell you if the name is unavailable or does not meet the network's formatting rules.
  3. The app pairs your base name with a two-digit suffix (for example, alicia.07). The suffix 00 is never used, and the app skips digits that are already taken, so distinct people can share the same base name. Base names need at least six lowercase letters.
  4. Confirm. The app signs the registration request on your device — your keys never leave it. It does not submit the registration directly: instead it sends the signed request to the network's attester service (the identity backend), which vouches for you and submits it to the People chain on your behalf.
  5. The attester queues the request and submits it, so the username appears a few seconds after you confirm rather than instantly. Once it is on-chain you are a lite person and your username is live.

Behind the scenes, the app sends your signed request to the attester service, which records your username on the People chain. Your username can also be reflected into .dot naming so it works across app and discovery flows.

sequenceDiagram
    participant You as You (device)
    participant App as Polkadot app
    participant Attester as Attester (identity backend)
    participant People as People chain
    participant DotNS as Asset Hub (.dot domains)
    You->>App: Choose base name, confirm
    You->>App: Sign registration on device
    App->>Attester: Send signed request
    Attester->>People: Vouch & register you as a lite person
    People-->>Attester: Finalized
    Attester-->>App: Registration confirmed
    People-->>DotNS: Username can be reflected into .dot naming

Reach Full personhood (optional)

Full personhood is invitation-gated: the app redeems a one-time invitation voucher, which then progresses your verification on-chain. Vouchers are not self-service — the team distributes them directly, for example as a QR code at an event. Without one, Lite is your tier.

That is the expected outcome, not a failure. Lite covers every user flow in these guides; the only thing Full adds is claiming a six-to-eight-character .dot stem with no digits (see Reserved and short-name gating).

Why some features need personhood

Personhood exists so that apps can offer one-person-one-action experiences fairly — for example, a single vote, a single claim, or one entry per human — rather than letting one user act many times from many accounts. Because apps read your tier (and a privacy-preserving alias) directly from the chain, they can enforce these limits without ever learning your identity.

Reserving a name can also be tied to your registration: claiming a username can mirror it into .dot naming, through operator-run infrastructure rather than your own transaction. To see whether yours was mirrored, search the name in the DotNS UI — nothing else about your account depends on it. Short names are the ones a tier unlocks; see Register a .dot domain.

If something blocks you

  • The name is unavailable. Try another base name or accept the suffix the app proposes.
  • The registration does not finalize. Check that your account has enough PAS for fees.
  • Full personhood is not offered. Expected without an invitation voucher — Lite is the tier these guides assume.
  • An app does not recognize your status yet. Wait for the on-chain update to finalize, then reopen the app.

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