Science... well, basically the way we do science -sometimes- sucks

I mean, not really, we love science... But, scientific research often faces challenges due to inconsistencies in data, making findings difficult to replicate. Researchers struggle to identify participants who meet specific criteria, and online surveys are increasingly vulnerable to being overrun by bots, leading to unreliable results. This results in:

• A lack of trust in the data
• Unverifiable datasets
• The proliferation of manipulated data
• The potential for p-hacking
• Reduced replicability of scientific studies

How can we make it suck less?

• Reward: Survey participants need to have incentives to participate in an honest way.
• Verify: Researchers need to verify that their participants are truly eligible.
• Commit: Researchers commit the data they have gathered in order to pre-register it.

The flow

Researcher POV

We can think of this flow as:

Survey Setup

• Define the parameters for the survey, including whether there’s a cap on the number of participants and any participation rewards.
• Set specific restrictions for participants, such as requiring Proof of Personhood (PoP) verification and other criteria like age, gender, or prior event participation.

Launch the Survey

• Once the survey parameters are set, launch it through the platform’s UI.
• Monitor the survey results on real time

Data Collection & On-chain Storage and Verification

• Collect responses as participants complete the survey.
• Store each response’s data, including proof of PoP (if present) and compliance with participation criteria, on decentralized storage (Filecoin and IPFS) to guarantee immutability and transparency.
• Pre-register the data on-chain for replicability.

Survey Completion

• Once the survey reaches the participant cap or the survey creator decides to end it, finalize the survey and generate the results.
• The results are stored on-chain, ready for future analysis and validation.

User POV

We can think of this flow as:

Login and Access

• Log in to the platform using one of the available options (e.g., Worldcoin, Quark ID, email) to be available to participate in the survey.
• If you meet the required criteria set by the researcher, you gain access to a given survey.

Survey Participation

• Complete the survey as instructed.
• If applicable, receive any promised incentives once you finish the survey.

Data Integrity

• Your participation data, including any verification proof, is stored on-chain, ensuring that your input is valid.
• Researchers can also include Attention Checks—questions designed to determine whether a participant is responding conscientiously. Participants who answer incorrectly on more than 40% of these Attention Checks will be excluded from the dataset.
• Participants can participate only once.

Survey Completion

• After the survey is completed or the participant cap is reached, the final results are generated and stored on-chain.
• You can be assured that the survey data is secure, verified, and contributes to trustworthy research outcomes.

Run locally

1. Install dependencies

npm install

2. Complete env.local with the variables:

NEXTAUTH_URL=http://localhost:3000
# Generate this with `openssl rand -base64 32`
NEXTAUTH_SECRET=

# Get these values from the Worldcoin Developer Portal
WLD_CLIENT_ID=
WLD_CLIENT_SECRET=

3. Run the project

npm run dev

Technologies We Use

Proof of Personhood

To ensure that only real individuals participate in surveys, we use World ID for Proof of Personhood (PoP). This helps prevent bots from manipulating survey results and ensures the integrity of the data collected.

Account Abstraction

To make the platform accessible to users unfamiliar with Web3, we leverage ThirdWeb for Account Abstraction. This allows researchers to log in and manage surveys using familiar credentials, such as their Google Account, simplifying the process without compromising security or verifiability.

Zero Knowledge Verification for Criteria

In the version 2, we plan to implement zk circuits in order to verify certain criteria such as age, nationality and ethnical data or studies, without the user revealing his/her identity.

We plan on deploying this to ZKsync and write the circuits on Noir.

Contract Addresses

Polygon

Survey.sol: 0x077d54488c525a5abeea077589a31c3eb675555e