World ID

Overview

World ID is a privacy-first identity protocol that brings global proof of personhood to the internet. It allows verified users to prove they are a unique person, and optionally prove they are performing a given action only once. This is accomplished with a combination of blockchain technology and zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP).

How does it work?

A user's World ID lives in their device, and only in their device. The user installs a compatible identity wallet (such as the World App). A unique and random private key is generated on-device, where it is securely stored. Identity wallets may incorporate their own recovery mechanisms, however Protocol-level recovery is being implemented soon.

From the user's private key, a public identity commitment is generated and published on-chain (currently Polygon), which acts at the source of truth for the protocol. An identity commitment is analogous to a public key in an asymmetric key-pair, or a wallet address, but in the World ID protocol this value is not broadly shared.The private key is used as input to each World ID verification, specifically as part of the ZKP.

The user's wallet (e.g. World App) generates a ZKP for every verification a user makes. Verifications cannot be linked across applications or actions, which means that the user's privacy is cryptographically protected.

After a user verifies, a nullifier hash is returned to the application. The nullifier hash is the user's unique identifier for the application (and the action, if using Anonymous Actions). Nullifiers are unique to the application, and cannot be linked to other nullifiers from the same person, even resistant to colluding applications.

Developer Portal

It is highly recommended to first register any applications in the Developer Portal. The portal provides a simple UI to manage applications, actions, and user metrics. The portal is the easiest way to verify the proofs returned by IDKit, and performs much of the on-chain lookups for the integrating application.

Additionally, those familiar with OpenID Connect (OIDC) will be able to use World ID as their Identity Provider. We support all of the most common integrations, such as Auth0 and Cloudflare.