The cryptocurrency project Worldcoin, co-founded by Sam Altman, the founder of OpenAI, announced on Wednesday (17th) the release of its Ethereum Layer 2 blockchain called “World Chain”. This blockchain will be deeply integrated with the Worldcoin protocol, and will utilize the underlying identity protocol World ID’s “Proof of Personhood” solution to accelerate development.
Worldcoin stated that World Chain is expected to be officially launched this summer and will be open to everyone. “Verified humans will have priority access to block space over robots, as well as gas fee subsidies for temporary transactions.” According to the announcement, verified World App users will receive WLD token subsidies every two weeks. In addition to Ether (ETH), which will remain the native token, WLD will also serve as the gas token on World Chain.
Built on top of the superchain
According to Blockworks, the user base of World App, the wallet application under Worldcoin, recently surpassed 10 million. Tiago Sada, the product, engineering, and design lead at Tools For Humanity, the developer of Worldcoin, stated that approximately 43% of the activity on the Ethereum Layer 2 network Optimism is related to Worldcoin.
As the usage continues to grow, the current blockchain platform where Worldcoin resides has become somewhat crowded. The dedicated network, World Chain, is designed to significantly increase network capacity, allowing new users to join on a large scale and enjoy faster and cheaper transaction experiences.
World Chain will be built using Optimism’s OP Stack and will achieve scalability together with the “superchain” ecosystem. Other blockchains that adopt the OP Stack include Base, the Layer 2 network of the Coinbase exchange, Mode, the modular DeFi Layer 2 network, and Zora, the NFT application chain.
Sada stated that the core team of Worldcoin will focus on developing an ecosystem consisting of real-world applications, mainly focusing on payments, stablecoins, and identity recognition.
