Sam Altman, co-founder of Worldcoin along with OpenAI, is leading a project that employs iris scanning for human verification. They aim to introduce an Ethereum layer-2 blockchain where authentic humans are given priority over bots in transactions.

Approximately 10 million people are signed up for Worldcoin, and half of them have authenticated their humanity through the initiative’s Orb verification process.

An Anti-Bot Blockchain Network

On April 17, Worldcoin unveiled its latest innovation – the human-focused World Chain blockchain, which is planned to be established using Optimism’s Superchain as its foundation.

On the Ethereum Layer-2 platform Optimism, Worldcoin stands out as the most widely used protocol, handling approximately 44% of all user transactions regularly. During times of high demand, this percentage even surges above 80%.

Based on the announcement, the expanding Worldcoin community led developers to create a separate chain for it.

Transitioning to a dedicated network will bring significant benefits right from the start. Following this, World Chain will lead the charge in enhancing scalability and decentralization for Layer 2 solutions on Ethereum through its Superchain ecosystem.

The Worldcoin Foundation focuses on promoting human interactions on the World Chain network, contrasting the predominantly automated transactions in this field. Excessive automated transactions, which make up over 50% of user activity on major blockchains, can lead to network overload and expensive gas fees, negatively impacting regular users.

Through World Chain, Worldcoin addresses this problem by prioritizing users who authenticate their identities via World ID. This verification process grants them a complimentary gas allotment and results in swifter transaction confirmations, outpacing bots.

In the interim, the Worldcoin Foundation will manage gas fees. The long-term objective is to achieve a balance such that “gas costs for regular users are eventually paid for by fees generated from automated users and heavy consumers.”

Additionally, Ether (ETH) functions as the native currency on World Chain. However, authenticated users can utilize Worldcoin (WLD) tokens to cover fees during grant redemptions.

According to the announcement, the World Chain launch is planned for this summer, and a developer preview is anticipated to take place relatively soon.

Worldcoin’s Regulatory Issues

In some countries, Worldcoin encounters ongoing regulatory challenges due to privacy concerns surrounding potential data breaches, which have raised alarms among data protection authorities.

Starting from March, the Portuguese and Spanish authorities ordered a 90-day suspension of Worldcoin’s biometric data collection process. Meanwhile, the Hong Kong authorities initiated an investigation into the project as early as January.

Despite facing challenges, Worldcoin has achieved an impressive milestone with over 10 million users on the World App, a crypto wallet developed by Tools for Humanity (TFH), in 160 countries. Among these users, more than five million have confirmed their World IDs. Additionally, the app has facilitated over 70 million transactions.

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2024-04-19 10:23