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Howdy!

Lore drop: I briefly considered flying on the viral Singapore crypto flight, but I waited too long to respond to the invite. 

After seeing the videos of dudes packed into a cabin yell-singing during the 10 hour flight, I’m starting to think divine intervention kept me off that airplane. The downside? I won’t be at Token2049 or Breakpoint. Anyways:

Worldcoin’s World IDs have made their way to Solana

In a continuing trend of Ethereum-centric projects expanding into the Solana ecosystem, Worldcoin’s World IDs can now be authenticated on Solana. 

Well-funded interoperability protocol Wormhole is handling the deployment by bridging World ID’s state roots, or snapshots of details like account balances at a given point in time, from Ethereum to Solana. Early Solana-native projects to explore using World ID include DRiP, DSCVR and Flojo.

Worldcoin is an identity project developed by Tools for Humanity, a company that boasts OpenAI CEO Sam Altman as a co-founder. The initiative uses futuristic (or dystopian, depending on how you look at it) Orbs to scan individuals’ irises and establish their uniqueness. This data is used to verify World IDs, which the project touts as something like a “global digital passport for the age of AI.”

In April, Worldcoin announced that it was building an Ethereum L2, World Chain, as a blockchain built with Optimism’s OP Stack software set. At the time, Tools for Humanity said it expected to launch the chain over the summer, although that timeline appears to have been a bit optimistic. A TFH spokesperson did not return a request for comment on World Chain’s status.

For what it’s worth, Worldcoin has made parts of its technology open-source, and the project says that it highly values user privacy. Orb data is deleted by default unless users opt to save it, for instance. Still, for many crypto followers to date, World ID’s relevance has stemmed more from its legal woes than from its real-world uses. 

The project faces legal troubles spanning continents, with regulators in several nations voicing concerns over how World IDs are generated and stored, and what Tools for Humanity does with its data. 

That being said, you could argue that World ID is uniquely useful for Solana, given how low fees have made it a hotbed for bots, and spam has at times crowded out real users’ ability to use the blockchain. 

Vibhu Norby, whose DRiP platform is integrated with World ID, told me last week that the project has faced millions of sybil attacks — and that’s for a project that hasn’t promised a native token for active users. 

If token airdrops went to verified World ID holders, for instance, then community airdrops would actually reach their intended recipients rather than being soaked up by airdrop farmers posing as multiple people. 

Wormhole Foundation co-founder and CCO Robinson Burkey also pointed out that Solana could help World ID be applied to “micropayments” use cases including airdrops, social proof systems, pay-per-content and micro-transactions in video games.

Still, despite the flashy names involved, color me skeptical for the moment. There are roughly 6.6 million World IDs in existence, and that number’s growth is hindered by Worldcoin’s legality.

World IDs are only useful for something like airdrop verification if they’re widely held, and in many jurisdictions, Worldcoin can only move at the speed of regulators.

— Jack Kubinec

Blockworks and the Solana Foundation are hosting Solana Founders Summit at Permissionless. Join a curated group of ~60 Solana industry leaders and founders for a day of workshops and off-the-record conversations.

The universal basic income token has been down only since March.

Worldcoin’s founders have talked about WLD, a token that is periodically airdropped to World ID holders, as a form of global UBI. Some of this headiness appeared to be vindicated when a rural Kenyan man bought himself a goat with his WLD allocation, leading Crypto Twitter to donate a bunch more crypto for the man to buy goats.

But that incident aside, World ID holders appear to be dumping their WLD after claiming it — which, to be fair, is still creating a sort of income for people, just not one that seems especially sustainable.

— Jack Kubinec

On Friday, Foster Protocol launched its Studio 2.0 — a Solana-powered merch tool for brands, artists and communities to create and sell physical goods. In theory, this is a win for creators. The platform promises direct-to-garment printing, embroidery and custom placements along with full control over design, pricing and scarcity. And with Merch Editions, creators can bundle physical goods with NFT sales. Finally, that 1/1 dog wif hoodie NFT can come with…an actual hoodie, I guess?

Some creators on X are already plotting their next drops. @saydialect gave it a bullish “this is dope” and @shoegaze503 said it was "very rad." @ZaneBaseGuy suggested that real-world commerce on Solana "could be fire," while @Lights_artist described it as "seriously incredible." @spyMK2124 summed up the news as "exactly what the ecosystem needs right now." Meanwhile, @canary_islander praised the team's work ethic and quality, saying, “Guys, you’re awesome. The amount of work you’re doing and the quality of everything is top-notch.”

Love or hate it, the play is obvious: Merge digital and physical goods in a way that’s seamless and scalable. Foster is betting big on the idea that blockchain collectibles were never meant to stay locked behind a screen.

@DudePump is certainly over the hype, though, saying "clearly what we needed was more overpriced swag to distract us from the next rug pull. Can’t wait to add some more shiny distractions to my collection!"

— Jeffrey Albus

A message from Rooter, founder of Save: