Human (HMT) is a cryptocurrency that powers the HUMAN Protocol, a decentralized and automated solution for launching, evaluating, and paying for various types of work. The protocol aims to enhance the systems through which humans request and complete work by tokenizing work or contribution and automating the process of launching, evaluating, and paying out that work on-chain. HMT serves as the medium of exchange within the HUMAN Protocol, facilitating the tokenization of contributions, which can range from clicking a CAPTCHA to writing a customer review. The protocol is designed to operate on multiple Layer-1 networks, allowing users to choose the network that suits their requirements.

The HUMAN Protocol operates through two technological layers: the Routing Layer and the Execution Layer. The Routing Layer coordinates all entities within the network, establishing the framework by which they work together. This process includes fee agreement, staking, slashing, voting, and more. The Execution Layer, on the other hand, fulfills the on-chain execution of the various work and responsibilities that the Routing Layer has discovered, assigned, and distributed. HMT tokens power these features, and network actors can fund certain features with other mutually accepted tokens, such as stablecoins, to reduce user friction and simplify interoperability.

HUMAN Protocol is designed to be broadly applicable, with potential use cases ranging from machine learning to customer reviews. The protocol's first implementation has been in machine learning, providing tools with access to a service that can help them scale and monetize their work. However, the protocol's data annotation services are not only for early-stage software – the scale, quality, cost, and flexibility that the protocol facilitates can make it an attractive option to companies of all sizes. The protocol also seeks to unlock new markets enabled by the global, permissionless micropayments facilitated by blockchains.

The HUMAN Protocol was developed with the vision of reshaping how humans work with other humans and building a mechanism for machines to help humans achieve their potential. The protocol's first app, hCaptcha.com, is live on the Ropsten testnet. Development has been underway since 2017, and open source implementations of many protocol components are already becoming available for different use cases. The protocol has made an impact in democratizing access to global talent for training machine vision models and is executing on de-fragmenting the rest of the machine learning annotation market.