Worldcoin’s World ID Expands to Solana via Wormhole Grant

Wormhole contributors have been awarded a grant from the Worldcoin Foundation to bring World ID, a leading decentralized identity protocol, to Solana. This integration aims to enable Solana-based protocols to seamlessly verify users' World IDs originally authenticated on Ethereum, showcasing the versatility of Wormhole's multichain infrastructure.

Primer on Worldcoin, Wormhole, and Solana

Worldcoin is a decentralized identity protocol designed to provide universal access to the digital economy. It employs privacy-preserving cryptographic techniques like zero-knowledge proofs to verify identities without compromising user privacy. The core of Worldcoin is the World ID, which uses biometric data to ensure secure and fair identity verification.

Wormhole is a decentralized interoperability protocol facilitating data and asset transfers across different blockchain networks. Launched in 2021, it supports over 30 blockchains and processes approximately $30 million in daily funds. Wormhole's infrastructure allows developers to build applications that operate across multiple blockchains.

Solana is known for its high performance, scalability, and low transaction costs. It can handle up to 65,000 transactions per second (TPS) due to its innovative Proof of History (PoH) consensus mechanism. This makes Solana an ideal platform for deploying decentralized applications requiring high throughput and speed.

Technical Integration

The primary objective of this integration is to enable protocols on Solana to verify users' World IDs authenticated on Ethereum. This involves two main tasks:

1. Reading, authenticating, and propagating the World ID state root from Ethereum to Solana.
2. Allowing protocols on Solana to authenticate users' World IDs against the canonical state root stored on Ethereum.

A new smart contract on Solana, the SolanaWorldIDProgram, will verify and store World ID state roots and validate inclusion proofs. Wormhole Queries will be used to authenticate inclusion proofs until Solana’s bn254 syscall is available in the upcoming 1.18 release. The Ethereum to Solana Wormhole State Bridge Service will propagate the World ID state root from Ethereum to Solana.

Why Does Worldcoin x Wormhole Matter?

This integration simplifies incorporating World ID verification for Solana protocols. Standard APIs and libraries will be provided for easy implementation. The integration is designed to be forward-compatible, accommodating future updates and improvements in verification methods.

Additionally, the integration brings several broader benefits:

• Enhancing Security and Decentralization: It improves security and decentralization of identity verification across blockchain networks, preventing fraud and ensuring fairness.
• Facilitating Cross-Chain Interoperability: It exemplifies the power of cross-chain interoperability, enabling decentralized applications on Solana to interact with identity verification systems on Ethereum.
• Promoting Financial Inclusion: By making identity verification more accessible and secure, more people worldwide can participate in the digital economy, promoting financial inclusion.

Conclusion

The integration of Worldcoin’s World ID with Solana, facilitated by Wormhole, represents a significant development for Web3. It enhances security, decentralization, and cross-chain interoperability, promoting a more inclusive digital economy. The SolanaWorldIDProgram and the Ethereum to Solana Wormhole State Bridge Service provide a robust and scalable solution for cross-chain identity verification.

About Wormhole

Wormhole is a leading interoperability platform that powers multichain applications and bridges at scale. It provides developers access to liquidity and users on over 30 blockchain networks, enabling diverse use cases in DeFi, NFTs, governance, and more. Trusted by teams like Circle and Uniswap, Wormhole has facilitated over $40 billion in transfers through over 1 billion cross-chain messages.