On October 18, the long-silent Worldcoin made waves in the market.
Founders Alex Blania and Sam Altman announced during a live press 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 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 the project.
Despite the founders' efforts to continue the narrative, the market seems skeptical. After the launch of World Chain, WLD fell by 10% instead of rising, and World Chain has also struggled to avoid becoming a new playground for MEME tokens.
On October 18, the Worldcoin founding team introduced the latest strategic layout for Worldcoin. Compared to previous focuses on World ID, WLD, and World App, this update introduced World Chain, slightly downgrading the priority of the app, while the UBI vision was no longer emphasized, returning to Worldcoin's essential identity verification function. The future will rely on World Chain, World ID, and WLD as the three main pillars, forming a network composed of real, verified humans.
The most noteworthy aspect of the update is undoubtedly World Chain. After nearly six months of waiting, World Chain was officially announced as a Layer 2 network built on the OP Stack, which 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 who undergo iris scanning through Orb 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 has also become a 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 utilizing NVIDIA's Jetson chipsets, achieving speeds three times that of the previous version. Notably, this device will initiate a global expansion plan to revisit the goal of reaching one billion users, collaborating with leading delivery service Rappi in Latin America to provide on-site appointment verification services with Orb, significantly broadening access channels.
On the app side, changes are more pronounced. In addition to 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 ID, wallets, and contacts while maintaining anonymity. This feature 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 functions 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 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 receive 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 the project's primary vision of authentic human identity verification and returning to its original intent 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 aimed at 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 response has been less than satisfactory.
Due to the press conference, WLD's price showed significant fluctuations, rising from $2.08 on October 17 to $2.53 on October 19, but after the mainnet launch, WLD's price fell by 10%. In contrast, Uniswap, which also operates a Layer 2 chain, saw a rapid 15% increase in UNI after the launch of Unichain.
The reason for this issue is undoubtedly the lack of price empowerment for WLD. As early as September 30, when Worldcoin released a press 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 the perfect application scenario 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 placed high expectations on WLD.
However, throughout the press conference, the actual effectiveness of WLD was not specifically mentioned, only briefly stating that users verified through World Chain would receive WLD token airdrops. In the introduction of the chain, the priority of WLD was not emphasized, and other functions, such as allowing users authenticated with physical passports to apply for WLD tokens before fully passing Orb verification, were only lightly touched upon. This is far from the direct token distribution protocols anticipated by 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. GSR MARKET deposited $3 million WLD into Binance and quickly sold off during the price increase, while Binance deposited $16 million WLD into a cold wallet on the day of the live broadcast, and Amber 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 concerns about price manipulation.
In fact, this is not the first time WLD has fallen into 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. They claimed that every time positive news was announced, a member of the team or a venture capital firm would use insider information to trade ahead, a view supported by on-chain detective ZachXBT.
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 through the World App after undergoing scanning verification, but currently, this token is not open for trading.
In addition to the official token, MEME is also indispensable. On the day World Chain launched, cats, dogs, rabbits, and frogs eagerly took the stage, reviving the zoo market, with the frog MEME FROGE experiencing a staggering 16-fold increase within 24 hours of the press conference, becoming the top gainer of the day. The explosion of MEME tokens also drove up trading volume, with disclosed data showing that World Chain's 24-hour trading volume exceeded $70 million on the day of the press conference.
Overall, as a new chain that has yet to achieve application completeness, the trajectory of MEME is inevitable, which may not necessarily be a bad thing. MEME has undergone multiple validations of its feedback to the chain, with Solana being a typical case in 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 possess an absolute advantage on the user side, indicating a weakness 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 initial reason for its construction was based on the strategic foresight 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 is currently only showing a cautious 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. Old sayings ring true; 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, in the case of ID verifications, fewer than one million new verifications have been added in the past three months, with a monthly increase of about 333,000. To reach the one billion target mentioned again at this press conference, it would take at least 248 years, not to mention the current surge in compliance risks for ORB. ORB has been banned in Spain and Portugal, and Argentina and the UK are also reviewing it.
Given 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; the over one billion in financing seems to have been a highlight moment. Not only has the token performed poorly, but compliance issues have also been ongoing, and growth has stagnated. In this context, the founding team must seek new growth paths. Thus, we can see that this update emphasizes growth, no longer insisting on the original Orb verification, allowing physical documents to serve as authentication, while the app has added more social features to enhance user engagement. The Orb has also achieved cost reduction and efficiency improvement from the cost side, and the on-demand delivery model has particularly highlighted the new user acquisition momentum, 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 significant 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, yet the updates have consistently failed to empower WLD. If this core issue is not resolved, the future path of the token is predictable.
Currently, WLD remains an appendage to the crypto AI sector, a subordinate to Sam Altman's marketing narrative, fluctuating with the trends. Interestingly, Worldcoin has transitioned to World, dropping "Coin." Although the official reason is that the old name "Worldcoin" no longer fits its mission of accelerating human roles in the future of artificial intelligence, could this also coincidentally resonate with the fate of WLD? This question may find an answer in the near future.
免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。
