AI has won a symbolic battle against Captchas, those tests that distinguish humans from robots. It only takes a few seconds for the models to solve them.

CAPTCHAs are supposed to differentiate you from bots with a visual test that takes a few seconds. However, AI is able to bypass this protection, such as Google Vision or Clip (OpenAI), which outperform humans in terms of object detection. The emergence of these models has real-world implications.

For example, reservation systems are regularly overwhelmed by bots that easily bypass Captchas. There are concrete examples such as driving tests in the UK with several months of waiting, football match tickets, online sales… AI takes up the slots or products to resell them at a higher price. Genuine users are then left helpless.

However, when Captchas were created in the early 2000s by Carnegie Mellon University, they were an innovative solution. In the face of bots that create fake accounts or spread scams, these text-based distortions helped protect websites.

The system then evolved with ReCaptcha in 2007, adding the digitization of old books. Then, in 2014, Google released version v2, which included image recognition.

But what solutions are there to authenticate humans and distinguish them from bots? Developers are exploring new avenues. For example, Google’s ReCaptcha v3 analyzes behavior: mouse movements, typing rhythm, etc. These subtleties are beyond the capability of bots to replicate. For now, other solutions are emerging, such as biometrics (fingerprints, voice recognition, or facial recognition), but there are still questions regarding privacy and accessibility. The democratization of AI makes the situation even more complex. Companies like OpenAI and Claude are preparing autonomous agents capable of taking control of our PCs. So, in the future, when these bots act on our behalf on a website, how will platforms distinguish “good” bots from “malicious” ones? Perhaps through digital authentication certificates, a path being explored.

The Cardano project, with its focus on security, decentralization, and scalability, could offer innovative solutions to the challenge of distinguishing “good” bots from “malicious” ones. Here’s how:

Cardano’s Atala PRISM platform provides tools for creating decentralized digital identities ( to understand the difference between Identus and Atala PRISM, click on the Atala PRISM documentation link ). These DIDs could be used to:

• Authenticate bots and humans securely.
• Issue verifiable credentials tied to specific agents, ensuring traceability and legitimacy.
• Allow platforms to verify bot actions without exposing sensitive data.

By utilizing a blockchain-based identity, Cardano ensures privacy, transparency, and reduced reliance on centralized entities.

Cardano’s blockchain can also serve as a decentralized ledger to:

• Issue and store authentication certificates for bots.
• Log interactions securely, providing an auditable trail that platforms can use to distinguish between legitimate and malicious activities.

This ensures that bots acting on behalf of users are verifiably authorized and that their actions are recorded for accountability.

Smart contracts on Cardano could:

• Automate the validation of bot certificates before granting access to sensitive platform features.
• Enforce rules or limitations on bot behavior based on predefined conditions.

For example, platforms could design systems where only “certified bots” can perform certain actions, with certificates validated through Cardano’s smart contract infrastructure.

With its decentralized governance model, Cardano could help establish a global framework for:

• Certifying “good” bots based on community-driven standards.
• Creating reputation scores for bots, much like credit scores, to ensure trustworthiness in bot-to-platform interactions.

Cardano’s focus on energy-efficient proof-of-stake consensus ensures its solutions are:

• Scalable to accommodate millions of agents (human and bot).
• Environmentally sustainable, making it a viable long-term choice for integrating authentication solutions.

With built-in cryptographic tools and a focus on privacy, Cardano could:

• Support zero-knowledge proofs to verify bot actions without revealing sensitive data.
• Ensure compliance with regulations like GDPR while maintaining user anonymity.

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Cardano Use Case : Creation of a custom academic credentialing solution with Identus