Worldcoin builders: Meet the Wave0 grant recipients advancing the tech tree

Recently, 28 projects were selected as part of the Community Grants Program Wave0 to help advance the Worldcoin Tech Tree, described by Remco Bloemen, head of blockchain at the Worldcoin Foundation, as “a whole number of great ideas that would accelerate the realization of the vision for the [Worldoin] project.”

More information on the Worldcoin Tech Tree can be found here.

These 28 recipient projects range in focus from using World ID to improve blockchain voting to building new hardware for proof of personhood verification and much more. 

To get a better understanding of exactly what these projects are working on and how this work is helping to advance the Worldcoin Tech Tree, take a dive into some of them in their contributors’ own words.* 

*Project descriptions provided to the Worldcoin Foundation by respective project contributors in their own words. 

“NEBRA is building the first proof aggregation protocol on Ethereum, which uses our Universal Proof Aggregation construction to aggregate ZKPs for all kinds of applications, including but not limited to privacy preserving identities, storage proofs, ZKML and zkEVM proofs. 

NEBRA will work together with Worldcoin contributing teams to bring the proof aggregation protocol to L2s such as Optimism. More specifically, NEBRA built an L2-optimized protocol to further reduce L2 ZKP verification gas cost based on the base layer NEBRA protocol.”

More on NEBRA.

“TheVoice is a modular governance platform that incorporates majority, quadratic, and convicting voting mechanisms. 

We focus on designing and implementing mechanisms for effective digital governance. We could potentially impact the collective decision-making processes within organizations, from DAOs and beyond.”

More on TheVoice.

“Clade Club is a platform designed to tackle the significant challenges faced by the evolving world of Decentralized Organizations(DAOs).

We have noticed a significant problem with how power can end up in the hands of a few in systems where decisions are made based on how many tokens a voter has. Clade Club is addressing this issue with a unique voting system that emphasizes the quality of people’s contributions to the community in many ways.

Our platform fosters a dynamic and user-oriented environment through live, interactive debates. Participants can upvote or downvote each other's contributions, ensuring informed decision-making takes center stage. This approach truly decentralizes governance, ensuring that the collective wisdom and merit of the community guide decision-making.”

More on Clade Club.

“We are building a merkle tree explorer that will visualize the Merkle Tree from the Merkle root that is committed to the Ethereum blockchain. 

All the World ID public keys and its construction will be visualized. This allows users to verify the validity of World ID in an accessible way, advancing decentralization through transparency, verifiability and resilience.”

More on Merkle Tree Explorer.

“Exciting times are ahead as we start building Votexx, a strong coercion-resistant voting scheme to bring private and secure voting to the blockchain world. 

The core idea of this system is stronger than anything that has been previously explored. Votexx allows users to nullify (or flip) their vote. This property, stronger than revoting, ensures that any user can vote as intended under extremely strong coercion. 

We’re looking forward to having foundations and DAOs using this system.”

More on Votexx.

“RewardMe is revolutionizing the way users monetize their daily spending data by rewarding them with cryptocurrency, thereby fueling the Measurable Data Token's decentralized ecosystem of data value creation for AI. 

RewardMe is dedicated to fostering a secure environment where users can contribute their data without the risk of fraud. We tackle this challenge head-on by integrating advanced fraud detection measures, which, despite their necessity, have sometimes hindered the user experience for our community.

To address this, we've adopted World ID's proof of personhood concept to efficiently combat fraudulent identities. This innovative approach ensures that each user linked to a World ID is a verified, unique individual, greatly reducing the possibility of fraud. We believe this integration not only streamlines RewardMe's daily operations but also sets a new standard for user verification processes, ultimately allowing us to focus more on rewarding genuine users and less on combating fraud.”

More on RewardMe.

“Over the past few months, our team has been dedicated to integrating Multi-Party Computation (MPC) into Worldcoin's production system. The project's objective is to develop an efficient MPC protocol that can perform iris code membership verification within MPC-shared databases. This innovation is set to advance decentralization efforts significantly while offering unparalleled privacy protections.

The initial outcomes from our Proof of Concept (PoC) are encouraging. In collaboration with Worldcoin contributing teams, we are now focusing on creating the next version of the system and getting it to production. This endeavor is poised to be among the most significant real-world applications of MPC to date.”

More on TACEO.

“IDMaster’s mission is to help more people use WorldID. We believe having an ID that preserves privacy, is independent of governments and gives everyone equal rights is a fundamental human right. 

To do this, we're making it easier to put together orbs. If orbs can be made easily everywhere in the world in a trustless way, it will be easier for lots of people to join the WorldID protocol. We plan to finish putting together our first orb in March and collect our learnings. Within a couple weeks, we'll share them and explain our plans for what comes next.”

More on IDMaster.

“David Chaum and Mario Yaksetig have engineered a novel re-encryption mix primitive. The goal of this design is to perpetually re-encrypt lists of data to ensure that servers store items without knowing which data items are stored. 

This design also enables efficient private lookups, which allows users to privately lookup if an item is present in the DB (with permission from the servers), thus mitigating rainbow table attacks.”

More on Zanzibar.

“Ribbon Protocol is developing an innovative model that intertwines Universal Basic Income with Universal Health Coverage, utilizing World ID users’ health and socioeconomic data to enhance global well-being. 

The protocol rewards users for activities that help assess their needs, linking them to personalized services. Since its inception in 2017, Ribbon Protocol has garnered support from notable entities such as Consensys, Blockchain 4 Humanity and the South African National Department of Health. It has also been acclaimed as one of the top 20 initiatives poised to significantly impact the next billion individuals within the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).”

More on Ribbon Protocol.

“This project will utilize Worldcoin's WalletKit, and xx network's xxDK to leverage a state of the art mixnet technology called cMixx, a testament to the Worldcoin project's commitment to the utmost privacy and security of its users. 

By leveraging the world's most sophisticated mixnet technology, pioneered by world renown cryptography expert David Chaum, Worldcoin users will engage digital applications with unrivaled personal data protection. This integration not only enhances user trust but also sets a new standard in safeguarding digital identities against the emerging threats of AI and quantum computing misuse. 

It's a bold step forward, further ensuring that the privacy and security of Worldcoin users is protected by the most advanced cryptography in the world.”

More on xx Network.

“Rarimo is making World ID usable on any EVM chain. And thanks to Rarimo’s on-demand cross-chain state replication, multi-chain usage will be hyper cost-effective

Even the smallest of EVM-compatible chains will be able to access WorldID without a financial hit.”

More on Rarimo.

“The World ID governor is designed to offer a Sybil-proof voting system where only orb-verified addresses are eligible to participate in a DAO.

Initially, it will support a governor that uses this feature to establish genuine democratic governance. The MVP focuses on crafting these governor contracts to be scalable and deploying them for testing. Furthermore, a user-friendly interface will be developed for an intuitive voting experience.”

More on Wonderland.

“POPGDP is an application designed to assist the Worldcoin Foundation in distributing grants, leveraging World ID to enable Sybil-resistant voting and incentivize high-quality engagement.

While grants are a great way to get exciting projects off the ground, the process is often cumbersome and plagued by bots and low-quality spam. With POPGDP, we leverage World ID to make the voting and reviewing process for grant distribution transparent, democratic, and resistant to manipulation.

Key features include sybil-resistant voting, incentivizing engagement, efficient processing and a user-first approach. We are finalizing v1 of POPGDP.”

Learn more about Wallfacer.