Worldcoin Foundation has revealed the recipients of its Wave1 Community Grants Program, aimed at advancing projects that boost online trust and global economic access. This first wave of grants has been awarded to 17 innovative projects that align with Worldcoin’s inclusive mission.
Who Are the Grant Winners?
A notable feature of Wave1 is the ongoing support for previous grant recipients. For example, TACEO, which has made strides in biometric template protection and the secure deletion of old iris code systems, will further develop Secure Multi-Party Computation (SMPC) technology to enhance privacy for WorldID verified users. Meanwhile, Axiom is working on a universal Groth16 verifier circuit to streamline WorldID proof verification, reducing on-chain costs.
Another new recipient, Proof of Passport, aims to build a framework for electronic passport verification within the Worldcoin ecosystem, exploring methods to achieve verifiable on-chain identity.
What Other Projects Are Included?
Farcaster Humanizer stands out by providing an identity verification layer designed to ensure the humanity of accounts within Farcaster applications, creating bot-free social spaces. Alphaday will be developing customizable dashboards for navigating the Web3 world, including DeFi, NFTs, and crypto, and will focus on centralizing information for the Worldcoin community.
Only Dust and Encode Club are focusing on attracting and training new developers. Only Dust will connect developers to active Worldcoin projects, while Encode Club will create an 8-week training series to educate individuals worldwide about Worldcoin through live workshops and YouTube content.
User-Usable Inferences
Concrete Outcomes for Users:
- Enhanced privacy for WorldID users through SMPC technology.
- Lower on-chain costs with Axiom’s verification improvements.
- Bot-free social spaces in Farcaster applications.
- Centralized dashboards for easier navigation of Worldcoin-related information.
- Comprehensive training resources for developers interested in Worldcoin.
Other notable recipients include Wormhole, working on cross-chain WorldID verification for Solana, zkSnap improving governance systems with secure voting protocols, and Herodotus developing middleware for smart contract data access. Additionally, World Poll aims to create a secure global survey platform using World ID for authentic feedback.
Additional projects supported by Wave1 grants include Cometh, integrating passkeys and smart accounts into World Chain wallets, agora researching governance frameworks for Worldcoin’s decentralization, Fuzzing Labs enhancing OP-TEE security for biometric data, and Satori optimizing World ID proof aggregation for scalability and cost efficiency.
Finally, BBB & Company, a sphere operator in Japan, will organize meetups to promote the adoption of World ID and Worldcoin.