In a significant development in the crypto world, Worldcoin, a digital identity protocol co-founded by Sam Altman, who is also the co-founder of OpenAI, launched its mainnet and WLD token on Monday. The announcement came following a weekend of heightened expectations.
The company announced the launch on Twitter with a message from the founders:
Worldcoin’s launch grants developers access to its software development kit (SDK), which was previously available only in beta mode. The SDK is designed to facilitate the creation of tools and apps using World ID, Worldcoin’s proprietary identity protocol. To achieve full verification, users are required to have their irises scanned by a device called Orb. This device generates a unique identifier from human irises but does not process or store any related data locally.
Beta tokens have been distributed to users five times so far. According to Tiago Sada, head of product, engineering & design at Tools for Humanity, the startup behind Worldcoin, these beta tokens would be converted, and users would have the freedom to use them within the World App or transfer them elsewhere. The WLD token is based on the Ethereum ERC-20 protocol.
The launch also marks the project’s final migration to the Optimism network, a Layer 2 scaling solution for Ethereum. The company has plans to increase the availability of Orb devices worldwide. As of now, only 200 Orbs have been made available to the public, scanning over 2 million people. The firm aims to produce 1,500 Orbs by the end of the year.
Worldcoin co-founder Alex Blania emphasized the importance of proof of personhood in the age of AI. He stated that the critical question is whether the proof of personhood solutions could be privacy-first, decentralized, and maximally inclusive.
In related news, Binance, a major cryptocurrency exchange, announced its plans to list the new token. Trading pairs for WLD/BTC and WLD/USDT are set to open, and users can start depositing WLD. However, due to regulatory uncertainty, WLD will not be available in the U.S.
Meanwhile, blockchain security company PeckShield detected a fake Worldcoin token that dropped 100% in value. The deployer of the fake token had interactions with SimpleSwap and MEXC and originally funded 161.6 ETH from MEXC.
The fake Worldcoin token detected by PeckShield is listed on Etherscan, a blockchain explorer for Ethereum. The token, which has a total supply of 8,032,122,420, is held by 156 holders and has undergone 427 transfers. Despite its presence on the Ethereum blockchain, the token’s fully diluted market cap is listed as $0.00, indicating that it has no value. This aligns with PeckShield’s report that the fake Worldcoin token has dropped 100% in value.
