According to Worldcoin’s announcement , the decentralized identity (DID) project World ID launched the 2.0 update, which provides plug-ins that support third-party verification for Telegram, Discord, Minecraft and other applications. It also divides the verification levels and does not force everyone to scan their iris. Improve the existing user experience and bring the first practical application scenario of World ID - login verification.
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ToggleWhat is World ID?
World ID is part of the Worldcoin project, which aims to provide a unified decentralized identity system around the world to help people without digital accounts use online products and reduce friction in existing verification systems. Worldcoin consists of three key products, namely:
- World ID: A decentralized identity (DID) project, which used to give users a unique identity by scanning their iris, is the core product of the project. Currently, about 2.6 million people have completed iris registration.
- World APP: A decentralized encrypted wallet APP that provides user key pairs to accept the World ID registered by users and serves as the client of the future identity system.
- World Coin (WLD): Use economic incentives to encourage users to register for World ID. There are 10 billion tokens in total. It is planned to be distributed to 1 billion people. The team and investors own about 25% of the shares.
Basically, they are common DIDs, wallets, and tokens in the industry. However, because the team behind it is Sam Altman, the founder of OpenAI, it has received more attention and resources. It has decentralized identity products that emphasize ecosystems and cross-border cooperation. Unique advantages.
Extended reading: Will Worldcoin be airdropped to 1 billion people? An article explaining in detail the OpenAI founder’s Web3 plan Worldcoin
However, there have been many positive and negative discussions in the community due to controversies such as security concerns about iris scanning, capitation account smuggling, and the conflict between the token distribution mechanism and the concept.
Extended reading: Vitalik’s in-depth analysis of Worldcoin｜What are the four major risks? Why doesn’t perfect authentication exist yet?
Now the World ID 2.0 update will try to solve some of the above problems and launch a login verification service. The main updates include:
- Provide multiple application verification services
- Divide verification levels
- Security and operability optimization
Provide multiple application verification services
World ID can already be used for login verification for some products.
The value of decentralized identity lies in the context of use. The more products or services that can be used, the more useful the decentralized identity will be, and more users will apply for it. Therefore, business development and ecosystem expansion are definitely the world's most important. ID's most important goal.
The World ID team has launched verification plug-ins for some popular applications, including third-party plug-ins for Discord, Reddit, Minecraft, Telegram, Shopify and other applications, for platform administrators to choose.
For example, a Telegram group administrator can choose to add a chatbot that supports World ID verification to the group, requiring members to log in with a World ID before they can chat; or a Minecraft server administrator can use a plug-in that supports World ID verification as a Alternative whitelist design.
Users need to use World APP to complete the above verification, which may be scanning a QR Code or signing directly. During the process, zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) is used to protect user information from being leaked when logging in.
Fully supported applications can be found on the official website.
Divide verification levels
World ID 2.0 provides multi-level identities to meet different usage scenarios.
Only a few people have completed the Orb machine scan to register for World ID. If the above verification service maintains the existing registration standard of iris scanning, it will be very inconvenient for most users who have not yet registered (whether due to privacy concerns or the current Orb There are very few scan registration locations).
Therefore, World ID 2.0 divides more verification levels to reduce verification requirements and meet more diverse usage scenarios. For example, the verification requirements of games are not as high as those of financial services. Different products can be customized according to needs. .
World ID 2.0 is divided into three identity tiers:
- World ID Device: Allows users to use mobile devices to verify and obtain this level of identity.
- World ID Orb: Like World ID 1.0, the uniqueness and bioactivity need to be verified by a trusted iris scanning machine (Orb) before you can obtain the World ID Orb identity.
- World ID Orb+: The most stringent identity level. This identity requires facial recognition verification in addition to iris scanning. The verification occurs locally on the user's mobile device.
Security and operability optimization
World ID 2.0 has many optimizations in account security and operability, including:
- Change/Delete World ID: If the user's World ID is stolen, they can re-register; the user can also delete the iris information at any time (lower the authentication level) to maintain privacy.
- Personal Custody: Adds a self-hosted information function through user devices (including facial recognition information for World ID Orb+ identity levels), and cancels the official managed data plan to increase user data security and privacy.
- Support OIDC, OAuth 2.0 protocols: World ID will be able to support third-party account login mechanisms such as "FB, Google" and so on.
- Wallet Bridge: An open source protocol that optimizes the process and efficiency of wallet signing and logging into external services.
The key to World ID’s success is ecological size rather than technology
In this update, we finally see the uses of DID other than issuing tokens. World ID 2.0 basically amplifies the service of DID user login verification as its first real use case.
We also see that the team attaches great importance to privacy and has indeed made many adjustments, hoping to reduce public concerns about privacy security.
However, the most important thing in the field of decentralized identity is the "application value" of its identity. Enough applications need to respond and support it to have an impact. For example, the more Discord administrators need to choose to use this method of verification, or the more applications need to use World ID as the default third-party login option, then this identity will be useful.
At present, it seems that World ID is just laying the foundation. After the product design and technical problems are overcome, how to make the ecosystem bigger will be the biggest challenge for the team in the future.
World ID still has a long way to go before it can be truly integrated with products and manufacturers from all parties.
