According to CryptoPotato, Worldcoin, a project co-founded by Open AI CEO Sam Altman, is set to launch an Ethereum layer-2 blockchain that prioritizes verified humans over bots. The project, which uses iris-scanning technology to confirm a user's 'humanness', currently boasts over 10 million users, half of whom have verified their human identities using the project's Orb.
In a blog announcement on April 17, Worldcoin introduced its new human-centered blockchain, World Chain, which will be built on Optimism’s Superchain. Worldcoin is the largest protocol on Optimism, an Ethereum Layer-2 scaling solution, accounting for 44% of user transactions on the network, and sometimes over 80% during peak periods. The continuous growth of the Worldcoin community led developers to build an independent chain. The Worldcoin Foundation aims to prioritize human transactions on the World Chain network, in a sector that is mainly controlled by bots.
Automated transactions, which account for more than half of user activity on major blockchains, often cause network congestion and high gas fees that affect human users. World Chain, however, aims to solve this issue by focusing on users who verify their identity using the World ID, which will enable them to get a free gas allowance and 'faster confirmation times' over bots. Ether (ETH) will serve as the native token for World Chain, but verified users will be able to use Worldcoin (WLD) tokens when they claim their token grants to pay for fees. The World Chain launch is slated for this summer.
Despite its innovative approach, Worldcoin continues to face regulatory hurdles in different countries, with the issue of possible privacy violations causing concern for data protection regulators. In March, authorities in Portugal and Spain instructed Worldcoin to halt its biometric data collection for 90 days, while Hong Kong began an investigation into the project in January. Despite these setbacks, Worldcoin has recorded over 10 million users on the World App – the World ID-compatible crypto wallet app designed by Tools for Humanity (TFH) – in 160 countries, with more than five million having verified World IDs. The wallet app also boasts over 70 million transactions.