AI Era: Why Human Authenticity Is Crypto’s New Currency

• AI-driven scams saw a massive increase of 1,400% in 2025, driven by deepfakes and synthetic agents.
• Kirill Avery, CEO of Alien, argues that authenticity is replacing throughput as the most critical resource in the crypto industry.
• Future economic value will shift from buying attention to verifying humanity through decentralized identity protocols.

The Crisis of the Imitation Economy

The digital landscape is undergoing a radical shift as generative AI erases the line between human and machine. According to Kirill Avery, founder of Alien, the proliferation of deepfakes and synthetic agents has triggered a 1,400% surge in scams during 2025. From AI-generated ransom calls to automated agents voting on blockchain governance, the internet is transitioning into an "imitation economy" where data no longer guarantees truth.

In this environment, traditional identity models are expected to collapse. Avery highlights that while the industrial era was defined by energy and the internet era by attention, the AI era will be defined by authenticity. The primary bottleneck for financial and social systems is no longer how much information they can process, but how accurately they can verify that a user is a real human.

Authenticity as a New Asset Class

As creation becomes effortless through AI, verification becomes the new economic driver. In his book Nexus, Yuval Noah Harari suggests that AI will eventually prioritize reputation and identity over traditional currency. This shift positions Proof-of-Humanity as a foundational asset class. Verification is becoming a necessity for several sectors:

• Finance: Required to prevent Sybil attacks and synthetic users.
• Social Media: Needed to distinguish real followers from bot farms.
• Governance: Essential for ensuring legitimate voting and participation.

Avery proposes the implementation of a realness score, a metric that could eventually replace the traditional credit score. By using cryptographic proofs and decentralized identities, individuals can demonstrate their authenticity over time without relying on centralized surveillance.

A New Social and Economic Divide

The infrastructure for verifying humanity will likely function like SSL did for e-commerce—invisible but essential. However, this development may lead to a new social stratification. Instead of a divide based purely on wealth, the future could see a split between verified humans and unverified synthetic entities. Verified individuals will enjoy access to finance and governance, while unverified entities may be restricted to certain digital zones.

Ultimately, the goal of this infrastructure is to move away from the current model of selling attention. Companies currently lose billions to bot-driven ad fraud. A transition to a trust-based economy would allow advertisers to pay for provably real human engagement, turning authenticity into the ultimate performance metric for the AI age.