Worldcoin Foundation, the company behind Worldcoin, today announced World Chain, a permissionless, open-source Ethereum layer 2 that’s expected to launch mid-2024. The blockchain will be deeply entwined with the Worldcoin protocol and is aimed at accelerating adoption of “World ID.” Worldcoin, according to its website, is a “free, privacy-preserving, open protocol intended to be the world’s largest identity and financial public network.” It aims to verify one’s “humanness” in an age of bots and deepfakes by asking users to stare into an Orb, in which the biometric image is then converted into an impenetrable string of numbers. When combined with an algorithm, the code verifies an individual as a unique human, providing confirmation via a World ID, which is stored in the World App on their phone. “Given the scale and growth rate of the community, it’s time to graduate to a dedicated network,” the company said in a statement. So far, 10 million people across 160 countries have enlisted their eyeballs, and the verified wallets have been used in 75 million transactions. This functions like a digital passport proving personhood (something akin to a blue check on a social media account), allowing users to authenticate web, mobile, and decentralized applications, and privately attest that they are human and not a bot or AI system. As a reward for the scan, users have been airdropped Worldcoin tokens, which are currently priced around $5. “At this point, it’s not whether there will be proof of personhood—the question is, will it be open-source, decentralized, and privacy preserving?” Tiago Sada, head of product at Worldcoin developer Tools for Humanity, told Fortune.

Full story : Worldcoin owned by OpenAI’s Sam announces its own blockchain.