Worldcoin

World, also known as World Network and originally launched as Worldcoin, is a humanity-verification project and financial network developed by the private company Tools for Humanity (TFH). Its core product is World ID, an open-source, privacy-preserving proof-of-personhood protocol that uses zero-knowledge proofs to let a person demonstrate they are a unique human online without revealing identity. Users install the World App wallet and visit an iris-imaging device called the Orb, largely deployed by a network of independent local businesses known as Orb Operators; images are deleted on-device by default and only an iris code leaves the device. Verified users in eligible locations can claim recurring grants of the WLD token.

The project outlined a three-part mission of a global identity, a global currency and an app enabling payments and transfers in WLD, other digital assets and fiat. WLD is an ERC-20 token deployed on Ethereum mainnet and bridged to World Chain, the project's layer-2 network, with a legacy bridged version on Optimism; total supply is 10 billion tokens. The token contract is not upgradable and no address can mint new tokens for 15 years after launch, after which protocol governance may mint up to 1.5% annually. Additional products include Face Auth facial comparison (2024), the Deep Face anti-deepfake feature, World App private chat and mini apps, and a planned Visa debit card.

The ecosystem is split across several entities: Tools for Humanity, a Delaware corporation headquartered in San Francisco with a German subsidiary, registered 2019-06-26 and employing roughly 500 people; the World Foundation, a memberless exempted limited guarantee foundation company in the Cayman Islands; World Assets, Ltd., a British Virgin Islands company registered 2022-12-07 that issues the 7.5 billion WLD allocated to the community; and World Chain LLC, a Cayman Islands entity that owns and operates World Chain infrastructure.