Disclaimer: This post contains thoughts on crypto, a volatile and risky asset class. It is not investment advice, and you should do your own research. All information is for educational purposes only. Please don’t take risks with money you’re not willing to lose.

In a dystopian future, the lines between humans and machines blur so seamlessly that verifying someone’s identity becomes a daily challenge. As AI models evolve to agents, they grow increasingly capable of replicating human-like interactions, perfectly mimicking conversational nuances and social cues. Just throughout this past election cycle we witnessed a number of deepfakes impersonating candidates. So while advancements in artificial intelligence are remarkable, they consequently present new concerns. How do we establish trust in online interactions. How do we protect against impersonation when digital spaces are rife with accounts that look, sound, and act human?

In the physical world, we rely on government-issued IDs such as passports and in rarer cases biometrics like fingerprints. But in the digital realm, the tools for distinguishing real from fake, human from machine, are often limited and untrustworthy. Even now, social media platforms, financial institutions, and online services grapple with the rising threat of bot-driven manipulation and identity fraud (i.e. every X comment section). As such, there is an urgent need for a universally accessible method to verify personhood in a way that is indisputable yet secure. A tool that doesn’t depend on any controller, but offers individuals sovereignty over their digital identity—thereby empowering them to interact in these spaces without fear.

What is World?

Co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, World (fka Worldcoin) builds with the above notions in a mind, envisioning a globally inclusive identity and financial network on crypto rails.

Underpinned by several core assumptions;

1. Proof of Human is a necessary digital primitive

2. Incentives align around adding real humans to the network

3. Custom biometric hardware is the most reliable way to issue digital identity

…the goal is to provide everyone with a digital identity that verifies their ‘humanness’ without ever compromising any personal privacy.

World ID

World ID serves as the cornerstone of the ecosystem, designed to anonymously preserve Proof of Human. Proof of Human, interchangeably Proof of Personhood, is used to describe the underlying mechanism that effectively secures World Network. Put simply, PoH ensures that individuals in a system are both real and uniquely human, gatekeeping bots, agentic AI, or any other form of duplicate identity from becoming parasitic. Once established, a verified individual can interact with the network without having to ever reveal their real-world identity.

As such, World ID can best be thought of as the protocol layer (i.e. the technical foundation). Identity is verified via the Orb and secured through zero-knowledge proofs.

• The Orb itself is proprietary to Tools for Humanity, a group of developers closely linked with World and their mission of building technology in the age of AI. Based on the project’s third core assumption, the Orb was novelly designed to generate AI-safe PoH verifications. Albeit eery, the device scans an individual’s iris, creating a unique hash identifier and subsequent World ID. To debate some concerns, no raw biometric data or personally identifiable information is stored—only a mathematical representation of the iris pattern. While the number of visitable locations is still growing, the Orb has thus far represented the best solution to issuing fraud resistant digital IDs.

• Zero-knowledge proofs, or ZK proofs, are further implemented to maintain the anonymity and privacy of unique individuals in the network. Widely used throughout the L1 and L2 space, ZK proofs are a cryptographic method in which one party can convince another that x statement is true, without conveying any information beyond the mere validity of x. For example, a user within World’s ecosystem is only verifying their humanness to access integrated dApps—no DOB, ethnicity, or other form of PII.

Together, the Orb and ZK proofs uphold the security of the entire World Network, simultaneously enhancing protocol trust and mitigating spam / duplicate users.

World ID itself is also optimized to be interoperable such that other developers can easily adopt its framework—envisioning an end goal of a globally recognized identity system underpinned by cryptography.

Worldcoin (WLD)

As is the standard for most blockchain-native projects, World compliments their architecture with a token, WLD. Whitepaper contributors clarify, “While network effects will ultimately come from useful applications being built on top of the financial and identity infrastructure, the token is issued to all network participants to align their incentives around the growth of the network.” Furthermore, it represents a way to raise capital in a decentralized manner that bootstraps → rewards early users. WLD can therefore best be thought of as the financial layer.

Tokenomics

WLD is regarded as both a utility and governance token—with ‘utility’ primarily being the sole way to settle payments between participants who interact within the ecosystem, and ‘governance’ being, well, governance. As such, WLD’s value is highly contingent on growing network effects and its users’ subsequent desire to impact the future of the network.

Like Bitcoin, WLD has a fixed (or capped) total supply, but with 10 billion tokens as opposed to 21 million. However, it’s worth noting that this only applies to the first 15 years, with the potential introduction of an inflation rate down the road. Regardless, the initial circulating supply upon TGE was valued at ~$219m across 106 million tokens, effectively opening trading just above $2 / WLD. While Worldcoin initially incentivized World ID signups via WLD rewards, supply is now only introduced through the respective token vesting schedules.

As of today, there’s an estimated 699 million tokens in circulation and an additional 1.6 billion that have been unlocked, yet remain illiquid (e.g. treasury, controlled distribution).

This leaves 7.4 billion tokens to still be unlocked, and more than 9 billion to still hit the open market—making pressure on the supply side heavy until *checks notes* 2038. Cynicism aside, this is more or less the case with all well-funded L1s and L2s (someone needs to line their pockets).

World App

Finalizing our allusions to World ID as the protocol layer and WLD as the financial layer, World App serves as the network’s front-end. Think of it as a user-friendly portal into World’s growing ecosystem.

For reference, the front-end in crypto generally refers to wallets as they bridge the aforementioned layers. World App likes to position itself as far more than an ordinary crypto wallet, combining their focus towards identity management with access to WLD and interoperable dApps within the World ecosystem.

In technical terms, it helps guide users through the Orb verification process, custodies their World ID credentials, and implements ZK proofs to later share those credentials with desired third parties (while preserving privacy).

Mini Apps

‘Mini Apps’ were recently introduced as part of World’s announcement of World App 3.0. As they write, “Mini Apps are everyday apps optimized for real humans”, but the unveiled version is widgets adjacent to the early iPhone days. They run directly inside World App and thereby seamlessly integrate with a user’s World ID, wallet, and contacts. Mini Apps enable simple payment chats with friends, top ups using digital assets, human-only polls, etc. As developers can plug into the custom SDK, the options are limitless so long as there is the demand to build.

World Chain

Previously native to the Optimism Mainnet, October’s news also brought the migration of the World ecosystem to their own highly anticipated Ethereum-secured L2: World Chain. With growing demand of now over 10 million users verified via World ID (performing over 75 million transactions globally), the project once accounted for nearly 44% of OP’s total network activity.

The development of World Chain thus represents a solution to their need for personalized blockspace that increases the network’s overall efficiency / scalability in tandem.

Some standout features include;

1. Transactions submitted by verified humans are prioritized

2. Verified addresses receive an allowance of free gas

3. Open-source, permissionless (as is the crypto ethos)

4. Interoperable with the Superchain ecosystem → ETH-aligned, OP, BASE

This transition was ultimately expected—consistent with the thesis that all ‘fat’ protocols will eventually create their own chains.

In Sum

Void of competitors and spearheaded by OpenAI’s Sam Altman, World emerges as the most ambitious attempt to address the challenge of identity in the age of artificial intelligence.

By weaving together World ID, WLD, and World App, World establishes an ecosystem that can pragmatically issue an accessible Proof of Human verification. The launch of World Chain further signifies their efforts to scale an inclusive and decentralized identity network.

Just my personal thoughts, biometrics are likely the best path forward in empowering individuals to navigate digital spaces without fear of fraud or impersonation. Leveraging the complexity of cryptography, ZK proofs admittedly feel warranted to best preserve such sensitive data. To conspire for a second, hypothetically Sam Altman is hyperaware of the future he is creating with OpenAI and feels the Orb is some dystopian primitive to survival? Theories and skepticisms aside, Worldcoin may very well redefine how our relationship with digital identity evolves alongside AI.

Anyways, if you’d like to upload your eyes to the blockchain, look no further. Otherwise, WLD can pretty much be purchased on any T1 exchange globally.