Worldcoin rebranded for self-rescue, WLD empowerment unclear, new chain ultimately becomes a MEME showcase

Author: Gyro Finance

On October 18, the long-silent Worldcoin finally stirred the market.

Founders Alex Blania and Sam Altman announced during a live conference that Worldcoin would undergo a significant update, officially rebranding as World Network, launching the World Chain mainnet, and updating other components, including ORB 2.0, World ID 3.0, and World App 3.0.

The intention behind the brand upgrade is clear, but just three months ago, Worldcoin faced a barrage of criticism due to the inflation of its token WLD and allegations of wash trading and fraud. This update can be seen as a self-rescue effort, with even the long-absent Sam Altman, the father of OpenAI, finally stepping back into the spotlight to promote it.

Despite the big names wanting to continue the narrative, the market seems unconvinced. After the launch of World Chain, WLD fell by 10% instead of rising, and World Chain has also become a new playground for MEME.

On October 18, the Worldcoin founding team introduced the latest strategic layout for Worldcoin. Compared to the previous focus on World ID, WLD, and World App, this update introduces World Chain, slightly downgrading the priority of the app, while the UBI vision is no longer emphasized, returning to Worldcoin's essential identity verification function. It was mentioned that the future will rely on World Chain, World ID, and WLD as the three pillars, forming a network composed of real, verified humans.

The most noteworthy aspect of the update is undoubtedly World Chain. After nearly half a year of waiting, World Chain is officially announced to be online. It is a Layer 2 network built on the OP Stack and will incorporate World ID. Compared to other public chains, World Chain has distinct features, with gas-free transactions being the most prominent. The foundation claims that all users scanned through the Orb iris scanner will be exempt from gas fees, which will instead be covered by the foundation. Additionally, the design of prioritized block space to reduce MEV attack risks is another highlight.

The long-criticized iris scanning device Orb has launched version 2.0, with new Orbs expected to be released in the spring of 2025. The design has been simplified, reducing components by 30% and lowering costs, while using NVIDIA's Jetson chipset, achieving three times the speed of the previous version. Notably, this device will initiate a global expansion plan to revisit the goal of 1 billion users, collaborating with leading delivery service Rappi in Latin America to provide on-demand Orb verification services, significantly broadening access channels.

On the app side, changes are more pronounced. Building on the original single wallet function, World App has introduced Mini Apps, allowing third-party applications to run within World App and deeply integrate with users' World IDs, wallets, and contacts in an anonymous manner, adding social, light consumption, and casual gaming features. This functionality seems to draw inspiration from the currently popular Telegram mini-programs, and compared to the rampant bots on Telegram, World App, which emphasizes real human identities, may have an advantage here.

All of the above features can integrate with World ID. In this World ID 3.0 version, perhaps to accelerate promotion, 3.0 has introduced World ID credentials, allowing users to authenticate using hardware and physical NFC real identities such as passports, with authentication information stored on the client side to ensure privacy. Previously, World ID only supported iris verification, and non-verified users could not claim WLD. Additionally, version 3.0 has introduced World ID Deep Face, compatible with video and chat, to combat deepfake threats.

Overall, this update is undoubtedly a strategic repositioning and reshuffling, reaffirming that the project's main vision is human identity verification, returning to the original intention of addressing AI threats. At the same time, the changes in various components also consider promotion and viral growth, with the addition of a public chain possibly empowering the WLD token, indicating a trend towards a more mature business model for World.

Despite the numerous positive updates and the rare appearance of well-known founders, the market's reaction has been underwhelming.

Due to the conference, WLD's price showed significant volatility, rising from $2.08 on October 17 to $2.53 on October 19, but after the mainnet officially launched, WLD's price fell by 10%. In contrast, Uniswap, which also operates a Layer 2 chain, saw UNI experience a rapid 15% increase after the launch of Unichain.

The cause of this issue is undoubtedly the lack of price empowerment for WLD. As early as September 30, when Worldcoin released a conference teaser titled "Building AI on human terms takes all of us," the market leaned towards believing that Worldcoin might collaborate with OpenAI, and the emergence of World Chain could provide application scenarios for WLD. According to the team's official blog post, as of October 17, 2024, 15 million World ID holders and World App users have migrated or are in the process of migrating to World Chain. It is evident that both external benefits and internal direction have high expectations for WLD.

However, throughout the entire conference, the actual effectiveness of WLD was not specifically mentioned, only briefly stating that users verified on World Chain would receive WLD token airdrops. In the introduction of the chain, the priority of WLD was not emphasized, and other features, such as allowing users authenticated with physical passports to apply for WLD tokens before fully passing Orb verification of World ID, were also lightly touched upon. This is far from the direct token distribution protocols anticipated in the current crypto market, and even compared to the indirect incentives of general public chains, it is clearly insufficient.

In this context, the market generally holds a relatively cautious attitude towards WLD, with quick sell-offs following the positive news becoming a common practice, particularly among market makers. According to on-chain analysis from Coinwire, several market makers have engaged in short-term profit-taking liquidation. GSR MARKET deposited $3 million WLD into Binance and quickly sold off during the price rise, while Binance deposited $16 million WLD into a cold wallet on the day of the live stream, and Amber also withdrew over $5 million WLD from Binance, splitting it into two sub-wallets to avoid tracking. In response to this issue, the market has once again raised voices about price manipulation.

In fact, this is not the first time WLD has been caught in a whirlpool of public opinion due to its price. In July of this year, due to large unlocks and selling pressure preparations, DeFi Squared published a lengthy article on X directly accusing the WLD team of manipulating prices and misleading through changes in issuance, market maker contracts, and announcements before unlocks, claiming that every time good news was announced, a member of the team or a venture capital firm would use insider information to trade ahead of time. On-chain detective ZachXBT also agreed with this viewpoint.

With a history of issues, it is naturally difficult for the price to rise. The newly constructed chain, boasting 15 million users, also inevitably becomes a unique token playground in the crypto space.

The ORB, named after the iconic iris scanning device, is the first token on this chain and has the nature of an official token. Users can claim 1,000 ORB after passing the scanning verification through the World app, but currently, this token is not yet open for trading.

In addition to the official token, MEME is also indispensable. On the day World Chain went live, cats, dogs, rabbits, and frogs eagerly took the stage, reviving the zoo market, with the frog MEME FROGE seeing a staggering 16-fold increase within 24 hours on the day of the conference, becoming the top gainer of the day. The explosion of MEME also drove up trading volume, with disclosed data indicating that World Chain's trading volume exceeded $70 million within 24 hours on the day of the conference.

Overall, as a new chain that has yet to achieve application completeness, the trend of MEME is inevitable. This may not necessarily be a bad thing, as MEME has undergone multiple validations in terms of feeding back to the chain, with Solana being a typical example of this point. However, in the long run, World Chain clearly cannot be limited to MEME. Compared to other Layer 2 solutions, World Chain lacks any key technological breakthroughs and does not have an absolute advantage on the user side, posing a disadvantage in attracting developers in the future.

Of course, from the perspective of overall application construction, the chain itself exists as an extension of the World ecosystem, currently emphasizing integration with World ID. The reason for its initial construction was also based on strategic foresight, considering that Worldcoin users accounted for a high 44% of transaction volume on the OP Mainnet. However, it is undeniable that, at present, the new chain's attractiveness heavily relies on the development of the World ecosystem, and external funding currently only shows a tentative wait-and-see attitude.

Returning to the World ecosystem, according to official data, as of now, World ID users have covered as many as 160 countries/regions, with the number of ID verifications exceeding 7.01 million, the number of active Orb devices reaching 848, and daily wallet transaction volume exceeding 290,000. To reiterate, although the user numbers are far from the founders' expectations, as an identity verification project, the data is still somewhat acceptable.

However, in terms of growth, the data is not as impressive. For example, the number of ID verifications has increased by less than a million in three months, with a monthly growth of about 333,000. To reach the 1 billion target mentioned again at this conference, it would take at least 248 years, not to mention the current sharp increase in compliance risks for ORB. ORB has been banned in Spain and Portugal, and Argentina and the UK are also reviewing it.

Considering all of the above, this significant update carries a strong sense of self-rescue. Since its launch in July 2023, Worldcoin's development has been fleeting, with over a billion in financing seeming to be a highlight moment. Not only has the token performed poorly, but compliance issues have also been constant, and growth has stagnated. In this context, the founding team must seek new growth paths. Thus, it can be seen that this update highlights growth, no longer insisting on the original Orb verification, allowing physical documents to serve as authentication, while the app side adds more social features to enhance stickiness. The Orb has also achieved cost reduction and efficiency improvement from the cost side, and the on-demand delivery model particularly emphasizes new user acquisition, making global expansion a direct path.

However, if this move aims to save the project from dire straits, the market's response indicates that it still faces numerous challenges. Even now, the entire World ecosystem lacks a core business model. Whether it is the foundation, market makers, or external investors, all rely on WLD for monetization, but in the updates, there has been no empowerment for WLD as usual. If this core issue is not resolved, the future direction of the token is predictable.

Currently, WLD remains an appendage to the crypto AI sector, a subordinate to Sam Altman's marketing narrative, floating along with the trends. Interestingly, Worldcoin's transition to World, dropping "Coin," although officially stated as the old name "Worldcoin" no longer fitting its mission to accelerate human roles in the future of AI, does this not also resonate coincidentally with the fate of WLD? This question may soon find an answer.