The Proof of Persona: Decoding Patent 060606 and the Mining of the Human Soul
A published blueprint for turning unconscious physiological response into economic validation—and what it reveals about the enclosure of the inner self.
TL;DR:
What it is: A 2020 Microsoft patent (WO2020060606A1) proposes using “human body activity data” (physiological signals) as proof-of-work for cryptocurrency validation—potentially even “unconsciously.”
What it converges into: Tokenization, the Internet of Bodies, and technocratic metaphysics converge into a program that treats involuntary physiological response as economic input—shifting proof-of-work toward proof-of-response and, ultimately, proof-of-compliance.
Why it matters: If access and reward depend on acceptable signatures, rights drift into permissions. This architecture opens a pathway to business models where biometric or behavioral data could be integrated into authentication, rewards, or payment systems (via blockchain or similar ledgers)—turning “who you are/what you do” into an always-on credential. Defending cognitive liberty means recovering a view of the person as real before and beyond any measuring apparatus or validation server.
Bottom line: When the body becomes the credential, the ledger becomes a referee.
Many readers will have encountered the term “biodigital convergence”—the deliberate fusion of biological systems with digital technologies, sensors, and networks. When Policy Horizons Canada released its 2020 report Exploring Biodigital Convergence, it coincided with a surge of public discussion around a strikingly numbered Microsoft patent application: WO2020060606A1, published the same year, which explicitly proposes using human body activity data (brain waves, heat, blood flow, and other physiological signals) as proof-of-work in a cryptocurrency system. At the time, the patent’s “666” numbering and its description of unconsciously harvested body signals fueled widespread theories—some dismissed as fringe, others prescient.
Today, as regulatory frameworks for cryptocurrency expand rapidly and tokenization of real-world assets (including, potentially, human data streams) moves from concept to infrastructure—as I explored in my recent Substack article (linked below) and in Chapter 3 of the book, The Final Betrayal, that I co-authored with Patrick Wood—the once-speculative blueprint feels less like conspiracy theory and more like a visible step on a longer roadmap.
That shift is no longer confined to crypto evangelists. Mainstream finance leadership is now describing tokenization as a broad, cross-asset future: BlackRock CEO has said the industry is at the beginning of “tokenization of all assets,” while Cantor Fitzgerald’s CEO has argued tokenization will become “a fundamental part” of his business—and, by extension, everyone’s. The cultural meme has a parallel institutional track: the idea is being laundered into inevitability by incumbents, not just promoted at the margins.
Unless the trajectory changes, we appear to be moving closer to the moment when involuntary physiological response can be systematically converted into economic validation. What follows is an examination of that blueprint, its mechanisms, and what it reveals about the attempted enclosure of the inner self.
