DeBiased

De-biased is a privacy first platform that solves the critical issue of Opinion Bias in online surveys.

The fundamental problem is that when identity is attached to sensitive questions such as political views, workplace morale or government policy opinions, respondents alter their answers due to fear of retribution, social pressure or incentive manipulation.

This results in inaccurate data that is unusable for making informed decisions. De-biased addresses this by using Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs) to create a trustless environment that guarantees three things: unbiased opinions, verifiable targeting and rewards for honesty.

Survey Taking Parties (individuals, companies or governments) define their precise target audience and fund a token pool in escrow. Respondents then submit their opinions completely anonymously while simultaneously generating a ZKP to cryptographically prove they meet the defined criteria, like being over 18 or from a specific region etc etc. The respondent is instantly and equally rewarded from the token pool only upon successful validation of this proof.

Our core value proposition is guaranteed truth.

The frontend is a Next.js application built with TypeScript and Tailwind CSS, providing a modern user experience for both survey creators and participants. The core data persistence and security rely entirely on Web3 primitives. We use the Filecoin Lighthouse service, which leverages IPFS for storage. When a survey is created, the survey metadata and questions are directly encrypted and pinned to IPFS, ensuring the data is immutable and censorship-resistant. When a user submits an answer, their anonymous response is also encrypted and sent directly to the decentralized storage layer. Crucially, no traditional backend server exists to store or link this data to a user identity.

The logic for rewards and verification is handled by our Smart Contracts, written in Solidity and deployed on the Kadena EVM Testnet. The ZVASP.sol contract manages the escrow of the reward pool. The ProofOfHuman.sol contract handles the Zero-Knowledge Proof (ZKP) verification, integrating with the Self Protocol SDK. This integration allows the user to generate a ZK proof to verify their eligibility criteria, such as age or nationality, which is checked on-chain by the contract.

The most innovative aspect of our implementation is the fully decentralized data flow: the user's anonymous opinion data goes to IPFS/Filecoin Lighthouse, while their ZK Proof of Eligibility goes to the Smart Contract. The contract only pays the reward upon successful ZKP verification, but it never sees the opinion, and the storage layer never sees the identity. This architecture ensures the opinions are honest and the data is verifiably targeted, achieving maximum decentralization and privacy.