Venmo Co-Founder Iqram Magdon-Ismail Brings Solo’s Human Proof to His Social App as AI Agents Outsmart CAPTCHA

Venmo co-founder and Solo advisor Iqram Magdon-Ismail is bringing privacy-preserving human verification to JellyJelly, allowing the platform to check that users are real, unique individuals without government-issued IDs.

AI agents can now pass CAPTCHA tests and pose as real users online. Solo is answering with help from Venmo co-founder Iqram Magdon-Ismail, bringing its privacy-preserving human verification to JellyJelly, his Solana-based social video app.

With Solo, JellyJelly can confirm that every account belongs to a real, unique person, with no government ID and no puzzles to solve.

Magdon-Ismail, Solo’s advisor, co-developed the proof-of-humanity software development kit (SDK) behind the integration, shaping both its architecture and how new users get onboarded.

“When we built Venmo, we spent a lot of time thinking about how to make something complicated feel simple for the person using it,” said Magdon-Ismail. “I think identity verification needs that same approach. At JellyJelly, we want people interacting with real people, but we don’t want everyone handing over their ID or solving puzzles just to use the app. That’s what we’ve been working on with Solo.”

Solo is backed by Draper Associates, the venture capital firm founded by Tim Draper, and was selected for the Solana Incubator cohort 5.

Solo's AI agent went unnoticed across 50+ Discord servers

In an experiment conducted by Solo, an AI agent named Gary joined more than 50 Discord servers overnight and sent over 500 messages without a single person identifying it as an AI agent.

Gary was given just two instructions: pass every CAPTCHA challenge and accept the terms of service. It completed both tasks through ordinary browsing and clicking, without using any custom exploits.

The experiment highlights a fundamental weakness in CAPTCHA-based security. These challenges test whether a visitor can solve a puzzle, but capable AI agents can solve the same puzzles. Making CAPTCHA tests harder adds friction for legitimate users while doing little to establish whether the person behind an account is actually human.

Bringing human verification to JellyJelly

JellyJelly allows users to share short videos and send cryptocurrency payments to one another. The rise of AI-generated videos and automated accounts has made it harder for social platforms to determine who is behind each account.

Solo's SDK brings human verification into that environment, helping the platform distinguish genuine users from automated accounts and prevent the same individual from registering multiple verified identities.

The verification process begins with a facial scan using a standard smartphone camera. Solo converts the scan into a biometric representation and encrypts it on the device using fully homomorphic encryption (FHE). This allows the system to compare the encrypted representation against existing records without decrypting the data during the matching process.

Users do not need specialized hardware or government-issued IDs. Raw facial images are not stored, and participating applications receive a verification result rather than access to users' biometric information.

"CAPTCHA was built around the idea that humans could do things bots couldn't. That's becoming a harder assumption to make when AI agents can browse, click and solve the same challenges as people," said Edison Siu, co-founder and CEO of Solo. "Our approach is to verify the human directly. Platforms need to know they're dealing with a real person, and users shouldn't have to struggle through more puzzles or upload identity documents to prove it."

The SDK can also be integrated into gaming platforms, digital payment services and other applications that need to prevent duplicate accounts or distinguish real users from automated activity.

From human verification to agent payments

Solo's human verification technology is already live. The company plans to develop tools that let verified users authorize their agents, so merchants and online platforms can confirm that a real, unique person stands behind each agent.

"Verification is the foundation, and we're developing agent authorization and payment capabilities on top of it," said Edison Siu, co-founder and CEO of Solo.

Solo also plans to enable AI agents and AI companies to pay verified people for work only humans can do. Magdon-Ismail, who co-founded Venmo and helped develop its peer-to-peer payment system, is advising Solo on how people and their AI agents will pay and get paid.

"Venmo made it easy to pay a friend," said Magdon-Ismail. "The next step is your AI agent paying on your behalf. The business receiving that payment needs to know a real person authorized it. I'm working with Solo to make that process simple for everyone involved."

About Solo

Solo develops privacy-preserving proof-of-humanity technology that helps online platforms verify that users are real, unique individuals without requiring government-issued identification. Its smartphone-based system uses fully homomorphic encryption to compare encrypted biometric data without storing raw facial images. Solo provides an SDK for web and mobile applications. The company is developing tools that would let verified users authorize AI agents to transact on their behalf. It also plans to enable AI agents and AI companies to pay verified people for work only humans can do.

For more information, visit projectsolo.ai.

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