ArgonAuths x Human Colossus: Finalists at HackNation 2025 — Redefining Trust in the Digital Public Sphere
We are thrilled to share that Team “Sigmion” - joint forces of Argonauths and Human Colossus – has been selected as one of the three finalists in the Prawda w Sieci (“Truth on the Web”) challenge, held under the patronage of Centralny Ośrodek Informatyki (COI), the institution behind Poland’s digital-services and identity initiative mObywatel.
What is HackNation
Prawda w Sieci (Truth on the Web) was one of the themes of HackNation — a new, nationwide hackathon ecosystem organized by the Ministry of Digital Affairs (Ministerstwo Cyfryzacji). This first edition gathered an extraordinary 1,500+ participants, who delivered over 300 projects across 13 thematic categories addressing real problems faced by public institutions.
HackNation is not a typical hackathon. It is the first implementation-driven innovation program for the Polish public sector, created to solve real administrative challenges with real code — and with a clear path to production. Finalist projects, such as ours, are not just prototypes: they are evaluated for practical deployment potential inside the institutions that sponsored specific challenge tracks.
Due to the overwhelming interest and the quality of outcomes, HackNation is already planned to return next year — a testament to how much untapped civic tech energy exists in Poland.
Our Unique Angle: Trust That Follows the Information
Most cybersecurity solutions verify locations — checking whether a website is legitimate, the URL is correct, and the certificate is valid. While necessary, this model collapses the moment information travels outside that domain.
We approached the problem differently:
We don’t bind trust to a website. We bind trust to the information itself.
Using cryptographically bound identifiers and verifiable payloads, our approach allows:
✔ Authenticating a government website
✔ Verifying any content that originates from it — even after it leaves the website
✔ Detecting manipulation in screenshots, copied texts, PDFs, or printed documents
✔ Extending trust to both digital and offline channels
✔ Integrating seamlessly with identity frameworks such as mObywatel and future eIDAS 2.0 wallets
This allows truth to become portable, not trapped inside a URL.
Why This Matters
We are entering an era where:
cloned sites are trivial to generate,
phishing outpaces awareness campaigns,
AI can fabricate screenshots indistinguishable from the original,
and public trust is routinely weaponized.
If trust depends only on where content is hosted, it becomes fragile.
Our vision introduces a new paradigm:
Trust becomes cryptographic, portable, and citizen-verifiable — anywhere, anytime.
This empowers Poland to set a global standard in digital public trust, extending the achievements of mObywatel beyond identity into the realm of verifiable truth.
What’s Next
Being among the top three among 300 project in such a competitive field is an honor — but for us, it feels like the start of something bigger.
We cannot wait to continue our collaboration and bring this prototype toward production. With institutional backing, what began during HackNation can evolve into a national — and possibly European — trust layer for public information.
If successful, citizens will no longer need to ask:
"Can I trust this website?"
Instead, they will be able to ask:
"Can I verify that it comes from authorize source?"
Stay tuned — the next chapter begins now.
Team Argonauths / Human Colossus