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World Chain, launched by Worldcoin, will be open to everyone, with verified human users given priority over robots in the blockchain space and receiving gas subsidies for daily transactions. Developers will have access to millions of real users worldwide to develop applications focused on practical daily life.
This network will be deeply integrated with the Worldcoin protocol to accelerate growth and leverage World ID's identity verification. It will also serve as a second layer (L2) on Ethereum for protection and be designed for scalability within the Superchain ecosystem. Importantly, it will be permissionless, open source, and ultimately aimed at community-led governance. World Chain is expected to launch by the end of this summer.
Worldcoin, launched nine months ago, aims to accelerate the adoption of "proof of personhood" and decentralized finance technologies, which will play a fundamental role in the age of artificial intelligence.
Currently, over 10 million people in 160 countries have created World ID-compatible wallets, and they have completed 75 million transactions using these tools. As of today, 5,010,534 people have used Orb to verify their World ID.
To continue absorbing users at this accelerated pace, significant breakthroughs in blockchain technology will be needed, especially in terms of efficiency, user experience, and practicality.
This is a preliminary preview of World Chain—a blockchain designed for humans, capable of scaling the Worldcoin protocol and the broader Ethereum community to over one billion people.
Huge user growth necessitates World Chain
Worldcoin transactions currently make up about 44% of OP mainnet activity, making it the largest application on the network. During peak periods, this proportion can rise to over 80% and sometimes even exceed capacity. Given the size and growth rate of the community, it's time to transition to a dedicated network.
World Chain is first aimed at significantly increasing capacity so that new users can continue to join en masse, and existing users can enjoy faster, cheaper, and more reliable transactions. Moving to a dedicated network has already brought significant benefits. Afterward, World Chain will stand at the forefront of Ethereum's layer-two paradigm expansion and decentralization, alongside the Superchain ecosystem.
Priority for real humans
Like many other parts of the internet, blockchain today faces many problems exacerbated by "bots." It is estimated that up to 80% of blockchain transactions are automated, and while many are valid use cases, non-producing bots like airdrop farms often lead to network congestion and high fees. Ironically, as blockchain optimizes for low gas fees and high throughput, this situation often worsens.
World Chain will address this issue through World ID. Just as people can use World ID to anonymously prove their humanity on applications like Discord servers and Subreddits, they will be able to verify their addresses on World Chain. This is optional and achieved through zero-knowledge proofs for anonymity, meaning addresses are completely detached from personal identities, and they simply receive verification similar to a blue checkmark. |
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