Wormhole contributors have been awarded a grant from the Worldcoin Foundation to bring World ID, a leading decentralized identity protocol, to Solana. This move will enable Solana-based protocols to seamlessly verify users' World IDs that were originally authenticated on Ethereum, showcasing the versatility of Wormhole's multichain infrastructure and opening up new possibilities for cross-chain identity verification.

This blog post covers the planned integration of Worldcoin's World ID verification system with the Solana blockchain, facilitated by Wormhole. This integration marks a significant step towards universal digital identity verification across different blockchain networks.

Primer on Worldcoin, Wormhole, and Solana

Worldcoin is a decentralized identity protocol designed to provide universal access to the digital economy. It aims to be accessible to everyone, regardless of their location or financial status. At the core of Worldcoin lies the World ID, a state-of-the-art identity verification system that uses biometric data to ensure that each individual can claim their Worldcoin fairly and securely. The World ID system employs privacy-preserving cryptographic techniques, such as zero-knowledge proofs, to verify identities without compromising user privacy. This approach ensures that the identity verification process is both secure and inclusive, promoting financial inclusion on a global scale.

Wormhole is a decentralized interoperability protocol that plays a crucial role in facilitating the transfer of data and assets across different blockchain networks. Launched in 2021, Wormhole has quickly become a cornerstone for interoperability in the blockchain ecosystem, enabling secure and efficient communication between chains. The protocol leverages a network of 19 validator nodes, known as Guardians, to observe and verify transactions across all supported blockchains. Wormhole supports over 30 blockchains, including major networks like Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, and Solana, and processes over 100k messages daily, moving approximately $30 million in daily funds. Its robust infrastructure and comprehensive product suite allows developers to build applications that operate seamlessly across multiple blockchains.

Solana is renowned for its high performance, scalability, and low transaction costs, making it an ideal platform for deploying decentralized applications that require high throughput and speed. Solana can handle up to 65,000 transactions per second (TPS) due to its innovative Proof of History (PoH) consensus mechanism. This capability significantly reduces transaction costs and improves the user experience, making it attractive for devs and users alike. The integration of World ID verification into Solana leverages these strengths, providing a robust and scalable solution for cross-chain identity verification.

Technical Integration

The primary objective of this integration is to enable protocols on Solana to verify users' World IDs, authenticated on Ethereum. This involves two main tasks:

1. Reading, authenticating, and propagating the World ID state root from Ethereum to Solana.
2. Allowing protocols on Solana to authenticate users' World IDs against the canonical state root stored on Ethereum.

This requires developing a new smart contract on Solana, referred to as the SolanaWorldIDProgram. This program is responsible for verifying and storing World ID state roots and validating inclusion proofs. These inclusion proofs are critical for ensuring that the identity verification process is both secure and reliable.

To achieve this, the SolanaWorldIDProgram will leverage Wormhole Queries, a service that allows for efficient and authenticated cross-chain data retrieval. Wormhole Queries will be used to authenticate inclusion proofs until Solana’s bn254 syscall is available in the upcoming 1.18 release. This temporary solution ensures that the integration remains functional and secure in the interim period.

The second part leverages the Ethereum to Solana Wormhole State Bridge Service. This plays a crucial role in propagating the World ID state root from Ethereum to Solana. It involves monitoring the World ID contract on Ethereum for changes in the state root and securely transferring these changes 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.

Why Does Worldcoin x Wormhole Matter?

A significant part of this integration is making it easy for Solana protocols to incorporate World ID verification. To achieve this, standard APIs and libraries will be defined, allowing developers to integrate World ID verification into their applications effortlessly. Example code will be provided to demonstrate how protocols can consume inclusion proof verifications, ensuring that the integration is straightforward and developer-friendly.

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.

Additionally, the integration comes with a number of broader benefits and implications throughout the Web3 space, including:

• Enhancing Security and Decentralization: The integration of Worldcoin’s World ID with Solana through Wormhole significantly improves the security and decentralization of identity verification across blockchain networks. By ensuring that identity verification is conducted in a privacy-preserving manner, it prevents fraud and ensures fairness, which are critical components for the credibility and trustworthiness of digital economies.
• Facilitating Cross-Chain Interoperability: This collaboration exemplifies the power of cross-chain interoperability in use cases that range far beyond the mere transfer of value. By enabling decentralized applications on Solana to interact with identity verification systems on Ethereum, it fosters more integrated and versatile app designs.
• Promoting Financial Inclusion: Worldcoin’s mission to provide universal access to the digital economy is furthered by this integration. By making identity verification more accessible and secure, more people worldwide can participate in the digital economy. This promotes financial inclusion, breaking down barriers and ensuring that the benefits of blockchain technology are available to all.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the integration of Worldcoin’s World ID with Solana, facilitated by Wormhole, is a truly significant development for Web3 as a whole. The collaboration bolsters security and decentralization, exemplifies the power of cross-chain interoperability, and promotes financial inclusion.

By enabling Solana to verify World IDs authenticated on Ethereum, the integration ensures seamless operation of decentralized applications across multiple blockchain networks with the SolanaWorldIDProgram and the Ethereum to Solana Wormhole State Bridge Service providing a robust and scalable solution for cross-chain identity verification.
For devs, the integration offers standard APIs and libraries for easy implementation and ensures compatibility with future advancements. For the broader Web3 community, it means strengthened security, improved decentralization, and a more inclusive digital economy.

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About Wormhole

Wormhole is the leading interoperability platform that powers multichain applications and bridges at scale. Wormhole provides developers access to liquidity and users on over 30 of the leading blockchain networks, enabling use cases that span DeFi, NFTs, governance, and more.

The wider Wormhole network is trusted and used by teams like Circle and Uniswap. To date, the platform has facilitated the transfer of over 40 billion dollars through over 1 billion cross-chain messages.