On October 18, the long-silent Worldcoin finally stirred up ripples in the market.

The two founders, Alex Blania and Sam Altman, announced during the live broadcast that Worldcoin would undergo a significant update, with Worldcoin officially renamed to World Network, the World Chain mainnet going live, and other components updated as well, including ORB 2.0, World ID 3.0, and World App 3.0.

The desire for brand upgrades is evident, but just three months ago, Worldcoin faced a series of criticisms due to inflation of the WLD token and wash trading scams. This update can be seen as a self-rescue act, with even Sam Altman, the father of OpenAI, who had been absent from the project for a long time, finally stepping forward to promote it again.

Although the big shots want to continue telling the story, the market seems less convinced. After the launch of World Chain, WLD fell by 10%, while World Chain also inevitably became a new playground for MEME.

On October 18, the Worldcoin founding team introduced the latest strategic layout of Worldcoin. Compared to the previous focus on World ID, WLD, and World APP in three major directions, this update introduced World Chain, slightly downgrading the priority of the app, and the UBI vision is no longer mentioned frequently, returning to the essential identity verification function of Worldcoin, stating that in the future, it will rely on World Chain, World ID, and WLD as the three pillars, forming a network composed of real, verified humans.

The most noteworthy aspect of the update is undoubtedly World Chain. After nearly half a year of waiting, World Chain has officially announced its launch. It is a Layer 2 network built on the OP Stack and will introduce World ID. Compared to other public chains, World Chain has clear main features, with gas-free transactions being the most prominent. The foundation claims that all users who go through Orb iris scanning will be exempt from gas fees, which will instead be borne by the foundation. Additionally, the design of priority block space that can reduce MEV attack risks is also a major highlight.

The long-criticized iris scanning device, Orb, has launched version 2.0, with new Orbs expected to be released in the spring of 2025. By simplifying the design, the number of components has been reduced by 30%, making it more cost-effective, while adopting NVIDIA's Jetson chipsets, running three times faster than the previous version. Notably, this device will initiate a global expansion plan, reiterating the target of 1 billion users, collaborating with leading delivery service Rappi in Latin America to provide on-demand Orb verification services, significantly broadening the acquisition channels.

On the app side, the changes are more significant. In addition to the original single wallet function, World App launched Mini Apps, allowing third-party applications to run within World App and integrate deeply with users' World IDs, wallets, and contacts while maintaining anonymity. This feature seems to draw inspiration from the currently popular Telegram mini-programs. Compared to the rampant bots on Telegram, World App, with the selling point of real human identity, may have an advantage here.

All of the above functions can integrate with World ID. In this World ID 3.0 version, perhaps to increase the speed of promotion, 3.0 has introduced World ID credentials, which can use hardware and physical NFC to verify real identities, such as passports. The certification information will be stored on the client side to ensure privacy. Previously, World ID only supported iris verification, and non-verified users could not claim WLD tokens. Additionally, version 3.0 has introduced World ID Deep Face, compatible with video and chat, to combat deepfake threats.

Overall, this update is undoubtedly a strategic repositioning and reshuffling, not only reaffirming that the project’s main vision is human real identity authentication, returning to the original intention of addressing AI threats, but also considering promotion and viral features in the changes to various components. The addition of a public chain may also be a consideration for empowering the WLD token, indicating that World’s business model is gradually moving towards maturity.

Despite the many positive updates and the rare appearance of well-known founders, the market's reaction has not been satisfactory.

Due to the presence of the press conference, WLD's price fluctuated significantly, rising from 2.08 USD on October 17 to 2.53 USD on October 19. However, after the mainnet officially launched, WLD's price fell back by 10%. In contrast, Uniswap, which also operates on Layer 2 chains, saw UNI surge by 15% on the same day as the Unichain launch.

The cause of this problem is undoubtedly the absence of price empowerment for WLD. As early as September 30, when Worldcoin released a press release titled 'Building AI on human terms takes all of us', due to the presence of AI in the title, the market tended to believe that Worldcoin might cooperate with OpenAI, while the emergence of World Chain could aptly provide application scenarios for WLD. According to the team's official blog post, as of October 17, 2024, 15 million World ID holders and World App users have migrated or are migrating to World Chain. It can be seen that WLD is greatly anticipated both externally and internally.

However, throughout the entire press conference, the actual effectiveness of WLD was not specifically mentioned. It was only briefly mentioned that World Chain would airdrop WLD tokens to verified users, and in the introduction to the chain, there was no emphasis on the priority of WLD. Other features, such as allowing users with physical passports to apply for WLD tokens before fully passing Orb verification of World ID, were also lightly brushed over. This is far from the direct token distribution income agreement expected by the current crypto market, and even compared to the indirect incentives of ordinary public chains, it is significantly insufficient.

Against this backdrop, the market generally holds a relatively cautious attitude towards WLD. Quick profit-taking after good news has become the basic operation, especially among market makers. According to Coinwire's on-chain analysis, several market makers have engaged in short-term profit liquidation. GSR MARKET deposited 3 million USD WLD into Binance and quickly sold off during the price rise. On the day of the live broadcast, Binance deposited 16 million USD WLD into its cold wallet, while Amber withdrew over 5 million USD WLD from Binance and split it into two sub-wallets to avoid tracking. This issue has once again sparked voices of price manipulation in the market.

In fact, this is not the first time WLD has been caught in a media storm due to its price. In July this year, due to issues such as large unlocks and selling pressure preparation, DeFi Squared published a lengthy article on X pointing out that the WLD team manipulated the price and misled by changing the issuance amount, market maker contracts, and issuing announcements prior to unlocks. They claimed that every time a positive announcement was made, a member of the team or a venture capital firm was using insider information to trade ahead, a view that on-chain detective ZachXBT also agreed with.

With a history of issues, it is naturally difficult for prices to rise. The newly constructed chain, World Chain, which boasts 15 million users, also inevitably becomes a unique token playground in the crypto world.

Named after the iconic iris scanning device, ORB is the first token on the chain and also has the nature of an official token. Users can claim 1,000 ORB tokens through the World app after undergoing scanning certification, but currently, this token is not yet open for trading.

In addition to the official token, MEME is also indispensable. On the day World Chain launched, cats, dogs, rabbits, and frogs eagerly took the stage one after another, reviving the zoo market, with the frog MEME FROGE soaring by 16 times within 24 hours of the press conference, becoming the top gainer of the day. The explosion of MEME also drove up trading volume; according to disclosed data, on the day of the press conference, World Chain's trading volume exceeded 70 million USD in 24 hours.

Overall, as a new chain that has not yet achieved application completeness, the trend of MEME is inevitable. This may not be a bad thing, as MEME has been validated multiple times for its feedback on the chain, with Solana being a typical example of this point. However, in the long run, World Chain certainly cannot be limited to MEME. Compared to other Layer 2 chains, World Chain lacks any key technological breakthroughs and does not possess an absolute advantage on the user side, making it disadvantaged in attracting developers in the future.

Of course, from the perspective of the entire application construction, the chain itself also exists as an extension of the World ecosystem, currently emphasizing integration with World ID. The reason for its initial construction was based on the strategic foresight that Worldcoin users accounted for 44% of the transaction volume on OP Mainnet. However, it is undeniable that at present, the attractiveness of the new chain highly depends on the development of the World ecosystem, and external funds are currently only showing a trial and cautious attitude.

Returning to the World ecosystem, according to official data, as of now, World ID users have reached as high as 160 countries/regions, the number of ID verifications exceeds 7.01 million, the number of active Orb devices has reached 848, and the daily wallet transaction volume exceeds 290,000. To reiterate, although the number of users is far from the founders' expectations, as an identity verification project, the data is still somewhat satisfactory.

From a growth perspective, the data does not look so impressive. For example, in terms of ID verification, the number of newly verified people in three months is less than one million, with a monthly growth of about 333,000. To reach the one billion target mentioned again in this press conference, at least another 248 years is needed, not to mention the current sharp increase in ORB compliance risks. ORB has been banned in Spain and Portugal, and Argentina and the UK are also reviewing it.

Combining all of the above, this major update clearly has a strong sense of self-rescue. Looking back at the development of Worldcoin since its launch in July 2023, it has only been a flash in the pan. The hundreds of millions in financing seem like a highlight, but not only has the token performed poorly, compliance issues continue, and growth has also stagnated. Against this backdrop, the founding team must seek new growth paths. Therefore, we can see that this update highlights growth, no longer insisting on the original Orb verification, allowing physical documents for certification, while the app side has added more social features to increase stickiness. The Orb has also completed price reduction and efficiency improvement from the cost side, and the on-demand delivery model particularly highlights the new customer acquisition trend, making global expansion a direct path.

However, if this move aims to rescue the project from dire straits, judging by the market's response, it remains a daunting challenge. Even now, the entire World ecosystem lacks a core business model. Whether it is the foundation, market makers, or external investors, all rely on WLD to realize profits, but in the update, it still does not empower WLD as always. If this core issue is not resolved, the trajectory of the token is foreseeable.

Currently, WLD is still an appendage to the crypto AI sector, a subordinate to Sam Altman's marketing narrative, floating with the trends. Interestingly, Worldcoin has transitioned to World, dropping 'Coin.' Although the official reason is that the old name 'Worldcoin' no longer suits its mission of accelerating human roles in the future of AI, could this also inadvertently resonate with the fate of WLD? Perhaps this question will soon find an answer.