Worldcoin opens World Chain L2 for developer preview

Key Takeaways

• World Chain developer preview allows early testing and feedback before the mainnet launch.
• The network aims to be governed independently by its community.

The Worldcoin Foundation has launched a developer preview of World Chain, its upcoming Layer 2 network. This preview enables a limited number of developers to explore, build, and test the network before its mainnet launch expected later this summer.

World Chain is designed to be a permissionless, open-source network independently governed by its community. It is secured by Ethereum within the Superchain network of Layer 2 chains built using the OP Stack. The preview allows developers to set up their deployments ahead of the migration of over 10 million World App users from the existing OP Mainnet.

The move to create World Chain comes as Worldcoin user transactions have grown to account for more than 50% of OP Mainnet’s activity since its launch in July 2023, sometimes exceeding 80% during peak periods. This growth has led to scalability challenges, prompting the decision to migrate to a dedicated chain.

World Chain is supported by partners including Alchemy, Safe, and Elliptic, who will provide tooling and infrastructure for developers. The Worldcoin Foundation projects that World Chain will be able to process approximately double the amount of work compared to OP Mainnet before the fee market is impacted, with further optimizations planned.

When World Chain was introduced earlier in April, the Worldcoin Foundation said that developers supporting the protocol “will continue to contribute directly to the Ethereum network (just like they did for EIP-4844) and collaborate with the developers working on the Optimism and Base networks” for shared infrastructure, scaling, security, and interoperability.

Worldcoin’s “proof of personhood” concept is rooted in an idealistic vision for the future of the internet and digital identity. The core idea is to create a system that can reliably distinguish between human and artificial actors online, addressing growing concerns about bot activity, fake accounts, and AI-generated content.

By using iris scans to verify unique human identities, Worldcoin aims to establish a global network of “verified” individuals. This could potentially enable more trustworthy online interactions, fair distribution of resources or universal basic income, and new forms of democratic participation in digital spaces.

The project envisions a world where every person has a unique, self-sovereign digital identity that preserves privacy while enabling secure access to various online services and platforms. In theory, this could help combat misinformation, reduce fraud, and create more equitable systems for distributing digital assets or voting rights. However, this idealism is balanced against significant privacy concerns and the practical challenges of actual implementation at scale.

By increasing network capacity, World Chain is expected to enable faster onboarding of new users and provide existing users with quicker, cheaper, and more reliable transactions.

This development could potentially accelerate the adoption of Worldcoin’s proof of personhood system and WLD, its associated token. The current price of WLD is $1.85, down 4% in the last 24 hours. Worldcoin has a market capitalization of $644.7 million and a fully diluted valuation of $25.1 billion.