World Chain, a layer-2 (L2) blockchain linked to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, has launched a new tool to prioritize real humans over bots to ensure transaction speed.
Priority Blockspace for Humans (PBH), a new open source mechanism on the World Chain mainnet, marks World’s latest effort to build a blockchain designed for humans, according to an announcement shared with Cointelegraph on Thursday.
The mechanism is implemented in World Chain’s block building logic that reserves a portion at the top of each block’s space for transactions sent from Orb-verified verified humans.
“Where bots create congestion, PBH provides a priority lane for real humans,” World told Cointelegraph.
Bots are an issue on blockchains
Blockchains, the network that record cryptocurrency transactions, are prone to bots just like the rest of the internet, often suffering from high congestion stemming from bot activity.
One example of blockchain bots is trading bots, which are automated software programs that take over repetitive trading tasks on behalf of users.
According to Steven Smith, head of protocol at Tools for Humanity (TFH), a core developer behind the World project, estimated that up to 80% of blockchain transactions are now automated, while artificial intelligence agents account for most onchain activity.
“While many are for valid use cases, unproductive bots like airdrop farming ones often lead to congested networks and high fees,” a spokesperson for World told Cointelegraph. “Ironically this tends to get worse as blockchains optimize for low gas fees and high throughput,” they said.
Flashbots among collaborators
World Chain’s new human-prioritizing mechanism was built in collaboration with the Ethereum research and development organization Flashbots, which is focused on the rise of the miner/maximal extractable value (MEV), the value that miners can obtain from reordering transactions inside generated blocks.
MEV bots are specifically automated programs that exploit opportunities in blockchain transaction ordering for profit.
“The TFH team’s role as a core developer has been instrumental in improving its high availability and production readiness,” the Flashbots team said.
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Other PBH collaborators included the Ethereum L2 scaling solution Optimism, the blockchain development platform Alchemy and the infrastructure platform Nethermind.
Many bots are useful, says World
Addressing the issue of bots within and beyond blockchains, such as social media platforms like X, a spokesperson for World said that there are many useful and helpful bots that exist on a variety of platforms.
“World wants to help ensure that participants in the real human network can distinguish between human centered and synthetic interactions,” World said.
In the meantime, some industry executives like Binance’s former CEO Changpeng Zhao have called to completely ban bots on X.
“From a technological standpoint, doing this is actually easier than people think,” Holonym co-founder Nanak Nihal told Cointelegraph, adding: “The question now is, will big tech genuinely start to prioritize the user experience?”
“Unlike priority systems based on gas fees or economic bidding, PBH introduces a new dimension of transaction ordering: humanness,” the World team said. “With PBH, Orb-verified World network participants are guaranteed priority access to ensure reliable transaction inclusion during periods of congestion and aren’t competing with bots for inclusion.”
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