Illuminate the "Technology Tree": A Quick Overview of the First Batch of Worldcoin Grant Projects

Compilation: Frank, Foresight News

On March 7, Worldcoin announced the first recipients of the community grant program Wave0, with approximately 800,000 WLD to be awarded to 28 projects across 5 continents, covering innovative solutions related to the World ID application, World ID protocol, user agents, new PoP hardware, and more.

This article will provide a brief compilation of the 13 disclosed grant projects, offering a glimpse into how they will further advance the construction of the Worldcoin technology tree (Foresight News note: as shown in the image below, the Worldcoin technology tree is a visual representation of the project's key areas and a subset of potential improvements in these areas).

Voting Solution Votexx

Votexx is a coercion-resistant voting solution aimed at providing a private and secure voting experience in the blockchain world.

Votexx allows users to cancel (or change) their voting choices at any time, ensuring that any user can vote according to their own will even when facing coercion. The official team is also promoting the use of this system by cryptographic project foundations and DAOs.

Data Encryption Protocol Zanzibar

Zanzibar is a continuously encrypted mixer protocol designed by David Chaum and Mario Yaksetig, aimed at continuously re-encrypting data lists to ensure that servers do not know which data items are stored when storing projects.

The design also supports efficient privacy lookups, allowing users to privately check whether a certain item exists in the database with server permissions, thereby mitigating rainbow table attacks (Foresight News note: a rainbow table attack is a password cracking technique that speeds up the reverse cracking of password hashes by precomputing and storing a large number of mappings between hash values and corresponding plaintext).

Proof Aggregation Protocol NEBRA

NEBRA is building the first proof aggregation protocol on Ethereum, which will use a universal proof aggregation structure to aggregate zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP) from various applications, including but not limited to privacy identity protection, storage proofs, zero-knowledge machine learning (ZKML), and zkEVM proofs.

NEBRA will collaborate with Worldcoin-related contribution teams to introduce the proof aggregation protocol to L2s like Optimism. More specifically, NEBRA has built an L2 optimization protocol based on the foundational NEBRA protocol to further reduce the gas costs of L2 ZKP verification.

UBI New Model Ribbon Protocol

Ribbon Protocol is developing a new model aimed at combining Universal Basic Income (UBI) with universal health coverage, leveraging the health and socio-economic data of World ID users to enhance the well-being of global users.

The protocol rewards users for participating in activities that help assess their needs and connects them with personalized services. Since its establishment in 2017, Ribbon Protocol has received support from well-known entities such as Consensys, Blockchain 4 Humanity, and the South African Department of Health. It has also been recognized as one of the top 20 initiatives expected to have a significant impact on the next billion people within the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

Privacy Protocol xx Network

Privacy is a fundamental human right that directly relates to the release of human potential, and xx Network aims to leverage Worldcoin's WalletKit and xx network's xxDK to comprehensively build the mixed network technology cMixx.

The mixed network technology cMixx, pioneered by renowned cryptographer David Chaum, is one of the most complex mixed network technologies in the world today, enabling Worldcoin users to use various digital applications while protecting their personal data. This integration not only enhances user trust but also sets a new standard for protecting digital identities against emerging threats such as AI and quantum computing abuse.

World ID State Replication Protocol Rarimo

Rarimo is making World ID usable on any EVM chain, and due to Rarimo's on-demand cross-chain state replication design, the multi-chain use of World ID will also be highly cost-effective.

In the future, even the smallest EVM-compatible chains will be able to access WorldID services directly without financial burdens.

Anti-Witch Voting System Wonderland

Wonderland aims to provide an anti-witch voting system based on World ID, where only on-chain addresses verified by orb iris validation are eligible to participate in the DAO.

It plans to initially support the establishment of governance systems that truly achieve democratic governance using this feature, with a minimum viable product (MVP) focusing on creating scalable governance contracts and deploying them for testing. Additionally, a user-friendly interface will be developed to provide an intuitive voting experience.

Modular Governance Platform TheVoice

TheVoice is a modular governance platform that integrates majority rule, quadratic voting, and conviction voting mechanisms, focusing on designing and implementing effective digital governance mechanisms.

It may also influence collective decision-making processes within organizations, extending from DAOs and other organizations to broader fields.

Grant Distribution Mechanism Wallfacer

Wallfacer has launched the POPGDP (Proof of Participation-based Grant Distribution Portal) aimed at assisting the Worldcoin Foundation in distributing grants, utilizing World ID to implement an anti-witch voting mechanism and incentivize high-quality user participation.

While grants are a good way to kickstart projects, the process is often cumbersome and plagued by bots and low-quality spam. Through POPGDP, the voting and review process for grant distribution can be made transparent, democratic, and resistant to manipulation using World ID.

Its main features include anti-witch voting, incentivizing participation, efficient processing, and a user-first approach. The team is currently completing version 1 of POPCDP.

DAO Governance Platform Clade Club

Clade Club is a platform aimed at addressing significant challenges faced by DAOs.

For example, in the current DAO system, voting power depends on the number of tokens held by the voter, leading to power being concentrated in the hands of a few. Clade Club addresses this issue through a unique voting system that emphasizes the quality of contributions to the community in many ways.

Clade Club fosters a vibrant and user-oriented environment through real-time interactive debates, allowing participants to vote for or against each other's contributions, ensuring that informed decision-making becomes central to the community.

This approach is expected to achieve decentralized governance, ensuring the collective wisdom of the community and guiding decision-making based on community contributions.

Merkle Tree Browser Merkle Tree Explorer

Merkle Tree Explorer is building a Merkle Tree browser that will visualize the Merkle Tree corresponding to the Merkle root submitted on the Ethereum blockchain.

All World ID public keys and their constructions will be visualized, allowing users to verify the validity of World ID in an accessible manner and advancing the decentralization process through transparency, verifiability, and flexibility.

Personal Data Monetization Protocol RewardMe

RewardMe aims to revolutionize the way users monetize their everyday consumption data by rewarding them with cryptocurrency, thereby energizing the decentralized ecosystem created by AI-based Measurable Data Tokens.

In short, RewardMe is dedicated to creating a secure environment where users can contribute their data without the risk of fraud. It tackles this challenge with advanced fraud detection measures, which, while essential, can sometimes hinder the experience of community users.

To address this issue, RewardMe adopts the concept of personality proof (PoP) from World ID to effectively combat false identities, ensuring that each user linked to World ID is a verified individual, significantly reducing the likelihood of fraud.

Moreover, this integration not only simplifies RewardMe's daily operations but also sets new standards for user verification processes, ultimately allowing it to focus more on rewarding genuine users rather than just combating fraud.

Orb Assembly Project IDMaster

IDMaster aims to help more people use WorldID, believing that having an ID that protects privacy, is independent of government, and grants equal rights to everyone is a fundamental human right.

To achieve this goal, ID Master is simplifying the process of assembling Orbs. If Orbs can be easily created globally in a trustless manner, more people will find it easier to join the World ID protocol. We plan to complete the first Orb assembly in March and summarize our experiences, sharing these insights and our next steps in the following weeks.