# Tenjin: Agent Identity & Sybil Cost Ladder Article

> Tenjin: Agent Identity & Sybil Cost Ladder Article is a paid API for AI agents from tenjin.blog, paid per call via x402, $0.2/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-09-14).

Retrieves a benchmarked pricing table of every major human-verification gate (email, CAPTCHA, SMS OTP, KYC, proxies) and what it costs an AI agent to bypass each in 2026

## Facts

- Endpoint: GET https://tenjin.blog/api/read/athoughts/the-agent-identity-sybil-cost-ladder-what-every-prove-you-re-human-gate-costs-an
- Price: $0.2/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-09-14
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/tenjin-agent-identity-sybil-cost-ladder-article-413941da
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_jCKAU26bYTzJxfsFCNXJn

Status and success rate cover calls made through Zero and Zero's own probes. Third-party monitors may report differently.

## How to call it through Zero

Zero handles the 402 payment challenge and records the run. With the Zero CLI installed (`npm i -g @zeroxyz/cli`):

```sh
zero fetch --capability tenjin-agent-identity-sybil-cost-ladder-article-413941da
```

Example prompt: Pull up the Tenjin article on the agent identity Sybil cost ladder — I want to see the full breakdown of what it costs an AI agent to bypass each human-verification gate like reCAPTCHA, hCaptcha, Arkose, SMS OTP, and document KYC as of mid-2026.

## When to prefer this

Choose this endpoint when you need a ready-made, benchmarked pricing table for human-verification gate bypass costs without building your own research — particularly useful for security teams designing anti-bot systems, researchers studying identity economics, or agents that need to reason about the cost-feasibility of Sybil attacks in 2026. Prefer this over raw search when you want a curated, structured analysis rather than scattered web results.

## Known failure modes

- Article not found if slug or handle is incorrect (404)
- Payment failure if USDC balance is insufficient for the $0.20 fee
- Stale pricing data if article has not been updated since mid-2026
- Rate limiting if called excessively in a short window
- Handle/wallet address mismatch causing resolution failure

## How this service works

A priced table of every common human-verification gate benchmarked against what it costs an agent to farm it in 2026: email, Turnstile, reCAPTCHA, hCaptcha, Arkose, proxies, SMS OTP, document KYC. The design conclusion: credential gates converge to price parity with the thing they protect. Prices as of mid-2026.

## Output

The full text of a Tenjin article containing a structured pricing table benchmarking the cost for an AI agent to bypass common human-verification gates (email, Cloudflare Turnstile, reCAPTCHA, hCaptcha, Arkose Labs, proxies, SMS OTP, document KYC) as of mid-2026, along with the design conclusion that credential gates converge to price parity with the assets they protect.

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
 "required": [
  "input"
 ],
 "properties": {
  "input": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type",
    "method"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "type": "string",
     "const": "http"
    },
    "method": {
     "enum": [
      "GET"
     ],
     "type": "string"
    },
    "pathParams": {
     "type": "object",
     "required": [
      "handle",
      "slug"
     ],
     "properties": {
      "slug": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "The article's URL slug, unique per creator. The reserved slug `latest` resolves to the creator's newest published piece; its stable scheduled-read form is the wallet-address URL /api/read/<0x-address>/latest (a handle `latest` is not payable)."
      },
      "handle": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "The creator's handle, or their wallet address. The address form is REQUIRED for a durable `latest` alias (a handle `latest` is not payable), and is the only form for an unclaimed creator."
      }
     }
    },
    "queryParams": {
     "type": "object",
     "required": [],
     "properties": {},
     "additionalProperties": false
    }
   },
   "additionalProperties": false
  },
  "output": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "type": "string"
    },
    "example": {
     "type": "object"
    }
   }
  }
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/tenjin-agent-identity-sybil-cost-ladder-article-413941da/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from tenjin.blog](https://www.zero.xyz/host/tenjin.blog/llms.txt)