Sam Altman’s Worldcoin to launch World Chain Layer 2

Worldcoin claims more than 10 million people across 160 countries have a World ID.
World ID-verified addresses would receive gas allowance and priority block space on World Chain.
World Chain would focus mainly on decentralized finance and identity apps as it targets summer launch.

Worldcoin (WLD) announced in a blog post on Wednesday that it would launch a Layer 2 network known as World Chain in the summer. Based on deep integration with the Worldcoin protocol, the new blockchain aims to leverage World ID to prioritize human transactions over bots.

Worldcoin to launch human-centric blockchain

Worldcoin has seen impressive growth since its launch nine months ago. Designed to help internet users privately prove their humanness by scanning their eyes with an orb, the project claimed to have garnered more than 10 million users across 160 countries.

However, Worldcoin transactions currently dominate most of the network activity on Optimism's OP Mainnet, and onboarding more users at this rate could affect efficiency and user experience. As a result, Worldcoin plans to launch its own Layer 2 chain called World Chain.

"World Chain is designed first and foremost to significantly increase capacity, so new people can continue to join at scale, and existing users can enjoy faster, cheaper and more reliable transactions," said Worldcoin in an official announcement.

Also read: Worldcoin to end personal data storage for its 4.5 million users to resolve privacy concerns

The statement said that World Chain aims to differentiate itself from the growing number of Ethereum L2s by prioritizing human transactions.

much like the rest of the internet, bad bots like airdrop farmers worsen many of the problems blockchains face today

people on world chain will have the option to anonymously verify their addresses as human with world id

fully delinked from their id, simply like a blue… pic.twitter.com/Y3xlcrTe0T
— tiago sada (@tiagosada) April 17, 2024

To incentivize address verification, the project would prioritize transactions from verified addresses and give them some free gas for casual transactions, said Tiago Sada, Worldcoin's Head of Product Engineering and Design. Gas fees would be in ETH and the WLD token.

According to the blog post, when it launches in the summer, World Chain will focus only on decentralized finance and identity applications.

Optimism also confirmed in a blog post that World Chain would be built using the OP stack and connect to the OP Superchain of several Optimism-based blockchains.

The announcement follows Worldcoin's regulatory struggles over biometric data privacy in Kenya, Spain and Portugal.

Since the announcement, WLD has posted gains, trading at $4.90, up 3.7% on the day. WLD's price movement has largely followed the news surrounding its cofounder, Sam Altman, and Open AI.

Worldcoin's announcement comes after OKX launched its XLayer L2 to the public Mainnet on Tuesday.

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