Worldcoin: 8 billion tokens airdropped to the community, aiming to create a world-class project for decentralized and global economic integration

Original Author: veDAO

Just a month ago, Tools for Humanity, the tech company behind Worldcoin founded by OpenAI founder Sam, raised $115 million in Series C funding, led by Blockchain Capital, with participation from a16z and others.

As Worldcoin is closely related to the current hot narrative of OpenAI, the reason it has attracted VC interest, according to Blockchain Capital, is that Worldcoin and World ID are expected to solve the issue of mutual trust on the internet and provide a foundation for enhancing trust in digital communities.

Moreover, Blockchain Capital is optimistic that Worldcoin could become the largest entry point into the crypto space, and World App might become the most widely adopted crypto wallet.

In fact, Worldcoin already possesses the potential of a world-class Web3 application to some extent: its deep integration with OpenAI, nearly 2 million actual users gathered through OpenAI, and a potential user base in the billions are proving to the market that Worldcoin and other Web3 applications have distinctly different ceilings.

Despite the complaints from on-chain players about the iris recognition method for airdrop claims, the market's enthusiasm for it remains undiminished, as no one can accurately judge how high Worldcoin's ceiling really is. Therefore, the veDAO Research Institute has specifically organized a brief overview of the project for everyone's reference.

What is Worldcoin

Worldcoin is a Universal Basic Income (UBI) project. Its vision is to ensure that everyone in the world has a minimum basic living guarantee. The founding intention of Worldcoin is: "What if there was a way to distribute new digital token shares for free to everyone around the globe?" Based on this question, Worldcoin was born: since the majority of people worldwide currently cannot verify their identity digitally, its vision is to build the largest and fairest digital identity and currency system in the world to help everyone enter the global financial system. Currently, Worldcoin has 1.96 million registered users globally, and the number continues to grow.

Organizational Structure:

Worldcoin is an open-source protocol designed to help everyone participate in the global economy. Its design is decentralized, meaning that ultimately its supervision and decision-making will be undertaken by its user community. Its organizational structure includes a non-profit organization and a for-profit company. Projects that typically use foundations tend to have larger asset scales and ecological layouts; Worldcoin's final structure is still moving towards DAO governance through a decentralized path.

Token Distribution:

The Worldcoin token is called WLD, with a total supply of 10 billion. 8 billion WLD tokens are allocated to the community, aimed at encouraging and rewarding community members participating in the Worldcoin project. 1 billion WLD tokens are used for long-term funding of the Worldcoin protocol, which includes grants to developers to support the ongoing development and innovation of the protocol. The remaining 1 billion WLD tokens are allocated to individuals and investors who contribute to the Worldcoin protocol and tools. Among them, $100 million worth of tokens were provided to the first round of financing institutions.

Main Components:

Worldcoin consists of three main components: Identity ID (World ID), Token (Worldcoin Token), and Worldcoin Wallet (World App). World ID: A privacy-protecting digital identity that allows users to prove they are unique, real humans anonymously; this product uses zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP) to protect user privacy. Worldcoin Token: A token distributed for free to people globally, used for usage and future governance. World App: A fully self-custodied wallet that can use Worldcoin tokens, digital assets, stablecoins, and traditional currencies for payments, purchases, and transfers globally.

Project Background:

On June 29, 2021, Worldcoin completed a $25 million funding round, with investors including the well-known Silicon Valley venture capital firm a16z, Coinbase Ventures, Digital Currency Group (which was once the largest cryptocurrency venture capital), Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of the former exchange FTX, and Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, among others. In March 2022, the company further secured additional funding from venture capital firms Khosla Ventures and a16z, raising a total of $100 million, with a valuation reaching $3 billion at that time.

Market Enthusiasm:

Founded in 2020, Worldcoin suddenly gained popularity in May this year, due to the fact that both OpenAI and Worldcoin are founded by Sam Altman. In November 2022, ChatGPT, developed by OpenAI, was launched, sparking an AI boom. A large number of users flocked to ChatGPT, making it the fastest-growing consumer application in history and propelling its developer, OpenAI, to become a unicorn with a valuation exceeding $20 billion. After the explosion of ChatGPT, OpenAI's founder Sam Altman also became a media favorite in Silicon Valley, following Elon Musk. As a result, the crypto project Worldcoin he founded also gained public attention.

Orb Iris Recognition Certification

Although the development of artificial intelligence has made it difficult to determine whether a voice or statement online comes from a human or an AI, proving oneself to be a real person still relies on biological information. Since AI does not possess real biological characteristics, biological information remains an effective means to distinguish humans from machines.

Biometric recognition is another advanced authentication method that uses unique biological traits of individuals for verification, such as fingerprints, irises, or voiceprints. These biological traits are inherent to each person and cannot be forged or simulated. By using biometric technology, World Coin can more accurately verify users' identities, preventing Sybil attacks and identity theft.

The core of Worldcoin's vision is to ensure that users are real individuals, ultimately choosing to achieve this through biometric technology. Thus, they developed an iris recognition technology called "Orb" to authenticate World ID. Since no two people's iris patterns are the same and these patterns are very difficult to forge, Orb can accurately distinguish people without needing to collect any other information about the users, not even their names.

The finished product of the Orb technology is a spherical machine used to scan irises and identify individuals. Orb has undergone three years of development and approximately one year of small-scale testing; the latest generation of Orb is now being manufactured in Germany, and this device has already helped Worldcoin verify over 1 million registered users.

Obtaining WLD

Ordinary users can obtain WLD through the following methods:

1. Download: Download World App from the official website above, available on the App Store or Google Play.
2. Registration and Verification: Open World App to register and authenticate. The account needs to pass the Orb iris authentication, i.e., eye scan verification, to prove that they are a real individual; one iris corresponds to one real account, and upon verification, they receive a World ID.
3. Claim WLD: Users generate a wallet address locally in World App to start receiving WLD to that address. All World ID users can periodically claim a certain amount of WLD for free. Currently, users holding a World ID can claim one WLD per week.

Additionally, users can become Worldcoin operators, obtaining an official Orb after assessment and training to expand new users and provide iris authentication services, earning WLD rewards. They can also contribute to the Worldcoin ecosystem by developing projects and receiving WLD donations, etc.

Conclusion

In summary, the product form of Worldcoin can be summarized as a combination of DID + Token + Wallet. Its vision is to realize a world economy where everyone participates and shares, allowing everyone to have their own digital identity and digital currency. Worldcoin adopts the Optimistic Rollup technology solution to implement its system. It is currently in the Beta stage, running on the Polygon network. Future plans include joining the OP SuperChain ecosystem to further expand its functionality and application scope.

As a leading cryptocurrency project, Worldcoin's development is still ongoing. As a bold attempt at decentralization and global economic integration, its ambitious goals and innovative technology may lead the development direction of the AI era, bringing positive changes to global society; the performance of Worldcoin is worth looking forward to.