An ambitious project that aims to build the "world’s largest identity and financial network" as a public good and bring "proof of personhood" to users globally.
Introduction
Despite the advancements in technology, there is, inevitably, a subset of society that is still catching up. An estimated 1 billion individuals worldwide, many in developing countries, lack a legal identity or digitally verifiable one. Globally, over 1.7 billion adults do not have access to a bank, many in rural areas. Alongside the ever-looming presence of AI, seen in the rise of AI technologies like ChatGPT by OpenAI, and the proliferation of the internet, this brings about the question: how can everyone have universal access to the global economy, while distinguishing between bots and humans in the digital space?
These two overarching themes come together to form the foundation of Worldcoin, an open source system designed to provide proof of personhood and financial public goods simultaneously, as AI technology becomes more prevalent.
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What Is Worldcoin?
Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, Worldcoin (WLD) was co-founded by none other than the CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman, alongside Max Novendstern and Alex Blania. The founders believe that "Worldcoin could drastically increase economic opportunity, scale a reliable solution for distinguishing humans from AI online while preserving privacy, enable global democratic processes, and eventually show a potential path to AI-funded UBI."
Worldcoin aims to be the “world’s largest identity and financial public utility”, by leveraging blockchain technology to target the two above-mentioned issues to democratize access to the global economy, especially for the less fortunate, and as well as use it as a step towards universal basic income (UBI) to support the people whose jobs have been displaced by AI. Worldcoin is structured into three main segments, namely:
1. World ID
2. World App
3. Worldcoin Token
These three segments come together to form a comprehensive solution that is Worldcoin.
What Is the World ID?
World ID claims to be a decentralized, privacy-protected identity solution, intended to bring “global proof of personhood to the internet.” This essentially allows each user to prove that they are, indeed, a unique individual, instead of bots that would misuse Worldcoin’s services and benefits granted to users. World ID is designed with the citizens of developing nations in mind, many of whom do not have any properly verifiable forms of identification.
Worldcoin stated that the World ID can be thought of as a “digital passport that lets you prove you are a unique and real person while remaining anonymous.” This data stored is protected by zero-knowledge technology, which enables it to be used to verify a user’s personhood, but without revealing their actual identity or their online habits to counterparties.
The World ID is not tied to the actual biometric data, but is simply a form of proof that the user is verified and can be trusted to be an actual human user. This is similar to most forms of identification that include certain watermarked, embossed or holographic markings to certify the legitimacy of the document.
The use cases of the World ID include allowing users to "sign in with Worldcoin" on a website, mobile app or cryptocurrency DApp.
What Is the World App?
The first step to getting verified with World ID is getting Worldcoin’s mobile app, known as World App, with more options coming.
World App functions very much like a stripped down crypto wallet, plus a few additional features. It is tied to the user’s World ID and allows it to be used with Worldcoin’s related services, such as Worldcoin grants. Worldcoin grants are payouts for users in eligible countries, who are verified via World ID. They can be seen as a form of fair and equal distribution to all World ID verified users, simply by nature of being able to prove that they are real humans. These grants are time-limited offers and are paid out in Worldcoin’s token, WLD, which is currently not trading yet.
Additionally, World App supports wallet features, including sending and receiving tokens as well as the buying and selling of tokens. That said, trading of tokens are currently limited to BTC (wrapped), ETH and DAI. Worldcoin explained that this allows users who are new to the crypto space to not be intimidated by the number of available tokens and can learn in a controlled environment. Users can also on-ramp and offramp funds easily via Moonpay and Ramp, which have been integrated with the app.
World App is currently in beta and runs on the Polygon blockchain. However, Worldcoin recently announced that they are in the works to migrate World App to Optimism, as part of Optimism’s Superchain. This is part of the collaboration between Optimism and Worldcoin and the migration is expected to come concurrently with the next Ethereum upgrade, EIP-4844, which will introduce a significant transaction fee reduction on Ethereum Layer-2s. Additionally, the app integrates account abstraction via Safe’s tried and tested contracts, allowing the user experience to be optimized for new crypto users.
Beyond basic wallet functions, World App also boasts Learn-to-Earn courses to provide new users with the materials to learn more about crypto and earn BTC, ETH and DAI. While non-verified users can still access the materials, the rewards for completion are only available to users who are World ID-verified.
Other World ID benefits on the World App include gas-free transactions when using the wallet.
Although the World App has only just been opened to the public, more than 1.5 million users have already signed up, of which 500K are active users. The app sees an average of 60K transactions daily and 25K World ID checks. With the app now open globally, these numbers are only expected to rise.
Source: Worldcoin (link)
What Is the Worldcoin Token (WLD)?
The Worldcoin token, or simply Worldcoin (WLD), is the final piece of the puzzle. Within the World App, Worldcoin is the currency in which grants are currently issued.
The Worldcoin token (WLD) went live on July 24, 2023 and listed on exchanges like Binance, Bybit, Huobi, Gate.io and more.
The "digital currency (WLD) received simply for being human" allows users that have biometrically verified their identity at a worldcoin orb and download the World wallet app to receive WLD tokens.
The WLD token has a maximum supply of 10 billion, and the official ERC-20 contract address is 0x163f8c2467924be0ae7b5347228cabf260318753.
Beyond grants, Worldcoin will also be used for governance over the Worldcoin protocol to determine the direction and future of Worldcoin. Additionally, the token can be expected to be integrated with the World App to be used as payments for specific services.
Currently, Worldcoin is not intended to be distributed to citizens in the United States or any of the other restricted regions. Users can learn more in the whitepaper.
How To Get Verified on Worldcoin?
While there are several layers to identity verification, a user can get World ID verified only through Worldcoin Operators, using a device known as the Orb. The Orb is a biometric imaging device, which captures the user’s iris. Since an iris pattern is extremely hard to fake, this is used as Worldcoin’s chosen method of identity verification to prove that a single person has not signed up for multiple World IDs. Since these verifications are done in-person with the World App, this means that no other information such as their emails or names are required, which makes World ID a pseudonymous form of identification.
To get verified, users can:
1. Download the World App on the App Store or the Google Play Store
2. After passing the initial setup, users can find an Orb near them by following the instructions in the app.
3. Complete verification with a Worldcoin Operator at the chosen location. Once done, the World ID will be available in the app, enabling the user to access various services and benefits.
Currently, the Orbs are available for limited periods in the following cities from May to July 2023:
- Berlin
- Dubai
- London
- Mexico City
- Miami
- New York City
- San Francisco
- Seoul
- Tokyo
- Hong Kong
- Singapore
Other locations and dates on their World Tour will be announced via their social media channels such as Discord and Twitter. Interested users can check out the Orb locations in their official website.
Beyond Worldcoin’s use case of World ID for increasing accessibility to the global economy and financial services, World ID can also be easily used in other applications, such as social media sites looking to cut down on bot profiles. In fact, World ID has been released with its SDK, allowing builders to leverage their technology in their own applications.
Concerns Over Worldcoin
The Orb method of verification has riled up many privacy advocates, with many criticizing the process as “dystopian-like.” In fact, this stirred up a 2022 MIT Technology Review exposé which highlighted privacy concerns in Worldcoin’s practice and how the less fortunate were being exploited. Tools for Humanity, one of the partners building Worldcoin, had to step in to refute the allegations.
Others, like former Ethereum developer Hudson Jameson, believes that Worldcoin shows a lack of transparency and regards its tokenomics as "questionable."
Nevertheless, Worldcoin is reportedly close to a $100 million raise, a significant amount in the current market conditions. Worldcoin has already raised funds from prominent investors such as a16z, Digital Currency Group and Coinbase Ventures in its Series A round.
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