Worldcoin’s World IDs make their way to Solana

Interoperability protocol Wormhole is handling the deployment by bridging World ID’s state roots from Ethereum to Solana

article-image

Robert Way/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share


Today, enjoy the Lightspeed newsletter on Blockworks.co. Tomorrow, get the news delivered directly to your inbox. Subscribe to the Lightspeed newsletter


In a continuing trend of Ethereum-centric projects expanding into the Solana ecosystem, Worldcoin’s World IDs can now be authenticated on Solana. 

Well-funded interoperability protocol Wormhole is handling the deployment by bridging World ID’s state roots, or snapshots of details like account balances at a given point in time, from Ethereum to Solana. Early Solana-native projects to explore using World ID include DRiP, DSCVR and Flojo.

Worldcoin is an identity project developed by Tools for Humanity, a company that boasts OpenAI CEO Sam Altman as a co-founder. The initiative uses futuristic (or dystopian, depending on how you look at it) Orbs to scan individuals’ irises and establish their uniqueness. This data is used to verify World IDs, which the project touts as something like a “global digital passport for the age of AI.”

In April, Worldcoin announced that it was building an Ethereum L2, World Chain, as a blockchain built with Optimism’s OP Stack software set. At the time, Tools for Humanity said it expected to launch the chain over the summer, although that timeline appears to have been a bit optimistic. A TFH spokesperson did not return a request for comment on World Chain’s status.

For what it’s worth, Worldcoin has made parts of its technology open-source, and the project says that it highly values user privacy. Orb data is deleted by default unless users opt to save it, for instance. Still, for many crypto followers to date, World ID’s relevance has stemmed more from its legal woes than from its real-world uses. 

The project faces legal troubles spanning continents, with regulators in several nations voicing concerns over how World IDs are generated and stored, and what Tools for Humanity does with its data. 

That being said, you could argue that World ID is uniquely useful for Solana, given how low fees have made it a hotbed for bots, and spam has at times crowded out real users’ ability to use the blockchain

Vibhu Norby, whose DRiP platform is integrated with World ID, told me last week that the project has faced millions of sybil attacks — and that’s for a project that hasn’t promised a native token for active users. 

If token airdrops went to verified World ID holders, for instance, then community airdrops would actually reach their intended recipients rather than being soaked up by airdrop farmers posing as multiple people. 

Wormhole Foundation co-founder and CCO Robinson Burkey also pointed out that Solana could help World ID be applied to “micropayments” use cases including airdrops, social proof systems, pay-per-content and micro-transactions in video games.

Still, despite the flashy names involved, color me skeptical for the moment. There are roughly 6.6 million World IDs in existence, and that number’s growth is hindered by Worldcoin’s legality.

World IDs are only useful for something like airdrop verification if they’re widely held, and in many jurisdictions, Worldcoin can only move at the speed of regulators.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Unlocked by Template (10).png

Research

Innovations on Aptos’ technical design through Raptr, Shardines, and Zaptos approach near-optimal latency and throughput by unlocking 100% utilization of network resources, with the capacity to settle 260k transactions per second with latencies less than 800ms. The original Move language was revamped with the launch of Move 2, supporting more expressivity in smart contract logic and a scalable ability to interact with high volume datasets. The ecosystem has benefitted from strong asset inflows, now hosting over $1.3B in stablecoins, $450M in bridged BTC, and $530M in RWAs. Activity in the Aptos ecosystem has grown notably over the past year, with monthly application revenue reaching ~$835k and monthly DEX volumes growing to over $5B, both at new all time highs.

article-image

Interchain Labs will focus on sovereign L1s and institutional demand, abandoning plans for smart contracts on the Cosmos Hub

article-image

Also, only three tokens have outperformed bitcoin so far this year: XMR, HYPE and SKY

article-image

The fund group has submitted proposals in recent months for other funds that would hold litecoin, solana, XRP, HBAR, Sui and others

article-image

Momentum’s back — BTC leads, risk assets follow

article-image

Ondo Finance’s acquisition of blockchain development company Strangelove follows its buy of Oasis Pro

article-image

Cryptocurrency and stock traders alike had a lot to unpack Wednesday