Wormhole grant brings Worldcoin ID to Solana

Worldcoin announced the 17 grantees for Wave1 of its Community Grants Program. The program aims to empower Wormhole and other cross-chain protocol builders. In response, Wormhole expressed its excitement about entering the Worldcoin Tech Tree that would oversee the advancement of Secure Multi-Party Computation (SMPC).

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According to Wormhole, users’ World IDs that were previously authenticated on the Ethereum network could now be verified through Solana-based protocols. Wormhole said they were ready to showcase the versatility of their multichain infrastructure by integrating the Solana blockchain with Worldcoin’s World ID verification system. 

????️ @Worldcoin World ID is coming to @Solana.

Powered by @Wormhole.

???? pic.twitter.com/LFqg1y5JrJ

— Wormhole (@wormhole) June 27, 2024

Wormhole to facilitate assets and data transfer between Ethereum and Solana

Wormhole announced the expansion of Worldcoin’s World ID to the Solana ecosystem after being selected as one of the 17 grantees of the “Human Collective Grants Program Wave1”. The Worldcoin Foundation mentioned that this was a step towards their mission to improve online trust in the world’s largest human network accessing the global economy. 

According to Wormhole, zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) would be among the cryptographic techniques employed through the World ID system to verify user identities without compromising their privacy. Wormhole revealed that the integration’s primary objective would be to “read, authenticate, and propagate the World ID state root from Ethereum to Solana.”

“The process begins with the state bridge service subscribing to changes in the World ID state root on Ethereum. When a change is detected, a Wormhole Query request retrieves the latest state root. This root is then submitted to the SolanaWorldIDProgram, which verifies and stores it. This ensures that Solana always has an up-to-date and authenticated state root for World ID verification.”

–Wormhole

Wormhole explained that the SolanaWorldIDProgram would allow Solana-based protocols to confirm the ‘canonical state root stored on Ethereum’ against users’ World IDs. Wormhole further hinted at the development of a new Solana smart contract responsible for verifying and validating inclusion proofs on stored World ID state roots.  

Worldcoin partners with Wormhole and Solana

Wormhole claimed that simplifying the incorporation of Solana protocols into World ID verification was an important aspect of the program (SolanaWorldIDProgram). Wormhole said this could be achieved by defining libraries and standard APIs to allow developers to include World ID verification in their applications without difficulties.

To ensure developer-friendly and straightforward integration, Wormhole revealed that an example code would be provided to show how protocols consume inclusion-proof verifications.

“Moreover, the integration is designed to be forward-compatible, accommodating future updates and improvements in verification methods. This ensures that the system remains robust and adaptable as new technologies and techniques become available.”

–Wormhole

Wormhole listed some of the advantages of this integration as “decentralization and security enhancement,” “promotion of financial inclusion,” and the facilitation of “cross-chain interoperability.” Wormhole disclosed that the integration of Solana with Worldcoin’s World ID would be an important expansion for Web3.

Cryptopolitan reporting by Collins J. Okoth