How to check if a wallet is a sybil (API)

The problem

Wallet age, balance and transaction count are all trivially farmable. A sybil operator spins up 10,000 addresses, warms them with cheap on-chain noise, and your heuristics wave them through. What is not farmable is a graph of mutual, signed attestations between people who actually know each other.

Step by step

1. 1. Get a free API key

   Connect a wallet on the developer page and a Starter key is issued instantly — 60 requests per minute, no card.

   export TRUSTLAYER_KEY="tl_live_your_key"

2. 2. Call the verify endpoint

   One request returns the score, the vouch count and how many distinct humans have interacted with that address.

   curl -s https://api.trstlyr.com/v1/verify \
     -H "x-api-key: $TRUSTLAYER_KEY" \
     -H "content-type: application/json" \
     -d '{"address":"0xd8dA6BF26964aF9D7eEd9e03E53415D37aA96045"}'

3. 3. Read the signal

   trust_score is 0-100. proof_count is how many signed vouches exist. unique_interactions is the size of the distinct human set behind them. Sybil farms score low on the last two no matter how much on-chain noise they buy.

   {
     "found": true,
     "trust_score": 78,
     "proof_count": 34,
     "unique_interactions": 21,
     "tier": "verified"
   }

4. 4. Gate your flow

   Pick a threshold per risk level: 20 for read access, 40 for posting, 60+ for money movement.

   const r = await fetch("https://api.trstlyr.com/v1/verify", {
     method: "POST",
     headers: { "x-api-key": process.env.TRUSTLAYER_KEY!, "content-type": "application/json" },
     body: JSON.stringify({ address }),
   });
   const { trust_score, unique_interactions } = await r.json();
   const isLikelySybil = trust_score < 40 || unique_interactions < 5;

Frequently asked questions

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