Wormhole has been awarded a grant from the Worldcoin Foundation to bring World ID, a decentralized identity protocol, to Solana. This integration 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.

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.

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. The primary objective of this integration is to enable protocols on Solana to verify users' World IDs, authenticated on Ethereum. This involves 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 of the integration 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. 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 enhanced security and decentralization.

It exemplifies the power of cross-chain interoperability and promotes financial inclusion. In conclusion, the integration of Worldcoin’s World ID with Solana, facilitated by Wormhole, is a truly significant development for Web3 as a whole. 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. Wormhole is the leading interoperability platform that powers multichain applications and bridges at scale.