Request for proposals (RFPs)

Research & Development

Open for Applications

Merkle proof private information retrieval (PIR):

Clients need to query the Merkle inclusion proof in order to generate a World ID proof. Correlation between other metadata could leak the identity of the user.

Mobile prover performance:

World ID wallets are inclusive and support very low-end devices. This could either mean improving the performance of the current library, benchmarking, or implementing alternative proof systems.

Nullifiers for smart contract wallets:

“Social recovery” for nullifiers.

Proof of Personhood impact research:

Impact analyses on Proof of Personhood in society and recommendations to improve user safety and privacy.

Closed for Applications

Iris Code zero-knowledge machine learning (zkML):

Calculation of iris codes from images in ZK proof. Allows for self-custody upgrades of iris codes.

Face authentication zero-knowledge machine learning (zkML):

Calculation of face embedding and comparison with the embedding from the Orb can reduce trust assumptions on the client.

MPC uniqueness check:

Performing the uniqueness check on multiple parties increases decentralization and increases privacy for the user.

IrisHash:

Anonymizing iris codes or (face) embeddings.

Batch verification of World ID proofs:

Aggregation of individual proofs to bring down on-chain verification costs.

Continuous Robustness

Closed for Applications

Hosting Indexers (e.g. Tree Availability Service):

Read replica alternatives.

Bridges to EVM chains:

World ID is deployed on Ethereum Mainnet and is bridged to Optimism. The existing state bridge relayer makes it very easy to support other EVM chains. This could entail hosting state bridge relayer or deploying verification contracts to other chains.

Bridges to non-EVM chains.

There should also be non-EVM chains supported (e.g. Starknet). This could entail shipping support in the relayer or the verification contract on-chain or implementing completely different approaches.

Explorers and visualization

Closed for Applications

Merkle tree explorer.

World ID already operates as a semi-zkRollup. We can embrace this further by adding a block explorer and other introspection / visualization tools of the network.

Orb overview / analytics.

Ideally good enough for crowd sourced fraud analysis.

Worldcoin data dashboards / visualizations / analytics.

Orb development

Open for Applications

Spoof detection:

Continuous improvement of spoof detection algorithms can help raise the security bar. Orb firmware verifiability: Adding the capability for orb provenance verification through the user agent to the Orb.

Closed for Applications

Firmware:

Similar to modern consumer electronic devices, continuous updates can improve security, functionality and stability. Concrete examples include the following:

Hardware Development:

While the current version of the Orb enables the scaling of the network, future versions can improve design, hardware security and cost.

• Industrial Design: Designing future versions of the Orb
• Hardware security: Improving tamper mechanisms further.

Alternative Orb (hw + sw):

Explore alternative and novel Orb designs improving on existing devices.

Signed camera:

Open camera module for creating signed images and streams that could be used in future generations of the Orb in order to allow for further decentralization of the supply chain.

Orb supply decentralization

Closed for Applications

Orbs Factory and Production:

Support for both new and existing factories to produce Orbs, from helping to cover initial production costs to expansion with increasing demand.

Distribution:

Support for Orb distributors increasing the resilience of the Orb supply network.

Security Testing

Closed for Applications

To continuously improve the security of the verification of World IDs, the corresponding infrastructure (Orb hardware, Orb firmware, anti-spoofing algorithms, app, operator app) should be continuously audited.

Infrastructure

Open for Applications

Safe recovery infrastructure:

On and off-chain recovery solutions for Safe smart contract wallets.

Closed for Applications

TxSitter:

Different implementations or contributions to the existing version.

TxBundler:

Different implementations or contributions to the existing version. Also running it as an alternative node in the context of ERC4337 bundlers.

Network Traffic Anonymizer:

All communication between the User Agent and other services should run through network level anonymization in order to reduce the risk of metadata leakage.

Mobile Client

Closed for Applications

Alternative wallets:

Implementation of an independent World ID wallet implementing Wallet Kit. This could also include claiming the WLD grants.

Safe recovery infrastructure:

On and off-chain recovery solutions for Safe smart contract wallets.

Wallet Kit:

Contributions to Wallet Kit.

Voting

Without proof-of-personhood the main decentralized voting methods are either token-based or reputation-based. Each of these creates opportunities for bad actors to game the system and gain more influence than they should. PoP allows for one-person-one-vote and quadratic voting (among others).

Open for Applications

Quadratic voting:

Here the deliverable is a World ID based implementation of quadratic voting. Simplest approach is sqrt(token_balance), but different cost functions and voting-specific balances are worth exploring (which is truer to the original paper).

Close for Applications

Private trustless collusion resistant voting.

It is surprisingly hard to build a perfect voting model, resistant to things like bribing. MACI made good progress here. How does this integrate with World ID? Note: answer could be trivial.

Trustless scalable voting infrastructure.

The cost of participation for voting should be negligible to maximize participation. For this reason it is often done mostly off-chain (e.g., Snapshot). It should be possible to do this as an L3 using ZKPs for integrity.

Bot resistant social media:

Open for Applications

Help reimagine social media through proof-of-personhood by designing innovative reputation systems, addressing spam accounts and scammers, and applying game theory and cryptography for message authentication and privacy preservation.

Digital alternatives to advertisements:

Closed for Applications:

Online marketing is currently mostly limited to advertisement. In the analogue world coupons and free samples are also popular methods. These currently don’t work online because they are easily abused by sybils. Use proof-of-personhood to solve this.

Universal Basic Income:

A key motivation for solving proof-of-personhood is to create the technical infrastructure that will enable UBI. Effective UBI requires sound system design across economics, politics, philosophy, and sociology. The end state is not clear, and experimentation is needed to help clarify the path forward.

Open for Applications:

Philosophical and Ethical Considerations:

Proposals that address ethical concerns around UBI and the implications of AI-driven economic systems.

Experimental Frameworks:

Design experimental frameworks to assess the social and economic outcomes of UBI, using metrics like poverty reduction, economic activity, and social well-being.

Local Pilot Programs:

Propose pilot programs in diverse geographic regions to test the implementation of UBI with Worldcoin, focusing on local economic impacts and community acceptance.

Governance:

With World ID, we have the ability to provably move beyond simple coin voting and genuinely open up the nascent design space for novel governance systems. Increased experimentation can better explore facets of community-based public goods funding, decentralized protocol development and maintenance, improved privacy preservation methods, and more robust DoS protection and reputation systems. We support ongoing research and MVP implementations to explore novel and existing governance designs.

Decentralized Governance:

Proposals that explore alternatives to traditional coin voting, such as quadratic voting, conviction voting, or reputation-based systems. These models should aim to enhance fairness and representativeness in decision-making processes.

Reputation Mechanisms:

Proposals to develop reputation systems that leverage World ID to build trust within decentralized networks, considering factors like past contributions, expertise, and community feedback.

Pilot Implementations:

Pilot Projects that leverage World ID to test novel governance models in real-world settings. These pilots should focus on using World ID to experiment with existing and novel governance frameworks in communities where World ID is available and has a significant number of orb-verified humans.

Operations in the context of World Network refers to the "analog world" allowing people to get their World IDs verified. A primary participant are Orb Operators i.e. independent entrepreneurs and the organizations around the world who provide Orbs in physical locations.

Open for Applications:

Operator Academy:

Create educational material and ongoing support to facilitate new Operator onboarding.

In-person Auditing:

Support for detecting and preventing malicious actors.

Closed for Applications:

Bringing Orbs to New Countries:

Using best practices from other countries, introduce Orb operations to new Operators and organizations to new jurisdictions.

Novel Tools:

Improve existing hardware equipment and software tools for the global community of Orb Operators.