Worldcoin Unveils World Chain, A New Blockchain Network Designed For Humans

As the craze of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Binance and others captivated the world, people were made aware of the vast capabilities and benefits of blockchain technology.

This included its decentralized nature, speedy operation, reduced costs, complete transparency and enhanced trust, which gave rise to numerous applications such as stablecoins, decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), smart contracts and more.

Ahead of this, it also gave rise to numerous organizations leveraging the technology to offer new products and services, which includes Worldcoin, which is “designed to become the world’s largest privacy-preserving human identity and financial network.”

Now, the project, which was developed by San Francisco and Berlin-based Tools for Humanity, a technology company co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in 2019, has exciting news that is set to extend the capabilities of Worldcoin and benefit human users.

So, what’s new with Worldcoin? Let’s explore!
 

What Did Worldcoin Announce?

 

• “Introducing World Chain: A blockchain for humans” begins the blog post published by Worldcoin on its website announcing World Chain, Worldcoin’s blockchain network.

• As per the release, the network “will be permissionless, open source, and intended to ultimately be independently governed by the community.”

 

• Launched on July 24, 2023, Worldcoin was created to accelerate the adoption of Proof of Personhood and decentralized finance, which the company believes will be vital in the emerging era of artificial intelligence (AI).

• Worldcoin’s World ID came to the forefront with a bowling ball-shaped orb, which performed iris scans to verify an individual is a real human, post which it creates a World ID.

• Launched nine months ago, Worldcoin has collected a user base of over 10 million people in 160 countries who have created a World ID and a compatible wallet, which has witnessed 75 million transactions. Ahead of this, 5,024,129+ people have also verified their World ID using an Orb.

• Worldcoin leverages OP Mainnet, a Layer 2 scaling solution for Ethereum, as its blockchain network to facilitate transactions at lower costs.

• At present, Worldcoin user transactions represent around 44% of OP Mainnet’s activity and sometimes go up to over 80% during peaks and even exceed the limits at times.

• Add to this the numerous problems blockchains face due to bots congesting networks (which Worldcoin estimates as many as 80% of blockchain transactions are automated), even if valid, resulting in higher fees and the scale and growth rate of the Worldcoin community.

• As the number of new users grows, it poses an onboarding challenge for the company for which it would need “significant leaps in blockchain technology, particularly around efficiency, user experience, and utility.”

 

• This is where World Chain comes in with a dedicated network.

• The network will be open for all and will prioritize blockspace for humans over bots and will be “secured by Ethereum as an L2 and engineered for scalability with the Superchain ecosystem.”

• It will also provide gas allowance for casual transactions, while enabling developers to reach millions of real users globally, with apps focused on utility for everyday life.

• As per the release, “World Chain is designed first and foremost to significantly increase capacity so new people can continue to join at scale, and existing users can enjoy faster, cheaper, and more reliable transactions.”

• Speaking about the importance of Worldcoin’s Proof of Personhood initiative, Tiago Sada, head of product at Worldcoin developer Tools for Humanity, said, “At this point, it’s not whether there will be proof of personhood—the question is, will it be open-source, decentralized, and privacy preserving?”

• “Across the board, if you talk to financial developers, of any type of application, they’re struggling with bots—it’s a really big problem,” Sada added.

• While World Chain is expected to be released mid-2024, the company expects a developer preview of World Chain very soon.

Do you think other blockchain platforms should consider similar moves?

Let us know in the comments below!