Introducing the new World ID: full-stack proof of human

World ID powers the new, human layer of the internet and digital experiences, spanning enterprise and consumer apps, platforms and services. 

Today, World is releasing the most significant World ID protocol upgrade yet. The new World ID is full-stack proof of human, unlocking new use cases across consumer platforms, enterprise applications and AI agents.

Alongside the protocol upgrade, today marks the introduction of the soon-to-launch World ID app, a dedicated experience built to put proof of human at your fingertips wherever you go online.

Why now

The real human network has grown quickly. World Network participants span 160 countries. Nearly 18 million people have verified their humanness at an Orb so they can prove they are a real, unique human online without revealing anything about who they are.

That scale brings new expectations. 

Enterprises require proof of human that operates at production grade: resilient to compromise, recoverable if access is lost and compatible with existing security systems. Consumers expect something just as strong, but also intuitive, portable and private by default.

The new World ID is built to meet these requirements. 

At the core of this upgrade is a new architecture that raises the bar for privacy, security and self-custody while remaining a familiar and seamless experience for World ID holders. People with a World ID can recover access, manage credentials and interact across apps, while still preserving the protocol’s foundational guarantees: anonymity, decentralization and inclusivity.

This is made possible through design choices like one-time-use nullifiers, which prevent interactions from being linked or correlated, alongside a system architecture that ensures no personal data is exposed or stored.

For a deeper look at the technical architecture, see the engineering blog on the new World ID protocol.

World ID for AI agents

For agents, the new World ID lays the protocol-level groundwork for human-backed AI. As AI agents increasingly act on behalf of real people, the ability to prove that a unique, verified human stands behind each agent becomes critical. World ID, combined with AgentKit, provides the infrastructure to make this possible at scale.

World ID for business 

For businesses, the latest version of World ID meets the bar for production deployment, at scale. 

Multi-key support, key rotation, recovery and formal session management bring the protocol into alignment with the expectations of organizations building trust and safety infrastructure at scale. But more importantly, World ID introduces something fundamentally new: human continuity.

Today’s security systems can verify devices and accounts – but not humans. If someone has your device, credentials or hardware key, they can act as you.

World ID enables the first authenticator that can provide high-assurance human continuity: verifying that the same real, unique human is present across interactions, without compromising their privacy.

This enables a new category of trust infrastructure – whether protecting video calls from deepfakes, strengthening the authenticity of communications or ensuring that governance and participation systems are limited to real humans. With tools like IDKit, World ID now provides the primitives needed to integrate these capabilities into production systems.

World ID for people

For consumers, proof of human becomes something you carry with you. With the World ID app and support for multiple authenticators, proving you are real will feel as natural as unlocking your phone or logging in via a social media account. When you sign into a dating app, join a gaming tournament, or buy a concert ticket, a verified World ID will be the trust layer underneath each of those experiences.

Introducing the World ID app

The protocol upgrade starts with open-sourcing the World ID SDK, so any app can be a World ID authenticator. To demonstrate this, World introduces the World ID app: a dedicated, purpose-built experience for managing and using proof of human across the internet and digital services, first released as a public beta. 

The World ID app is designed to be the place where proof of human lives on your device. From the app, you can verify with platforms and services, manage your authenticators, store credentials and control how your World ID is used. Over time and as the protocol becomes further decentralized, other developers and organizations will build their own authenticators. The protocol is open, and the choice is yours.

Contribute to World ID

The real human network now spans nearly 18 million verified humans. With the new World ID, the protocol is ready for the next order of magnitude, alongside the partners, platforms and use cases that come with it. The protocol components themselves are or will be open source and permissively licensed. We strongly encourage developers, researchers and builders to review the proposed specs, try the protocol, and share feedback.

Proof of human is becoming the foundational layer of the internet. The new World ID is how we get there. If you’re a business or application interested in integrating World ID, please explore the documentation at docs.world.org to get started.

World ID FAQs

How do I sign up for World ID?

A World ID can be created in any World ID-compatible digital wallet, such as World App, the first wallet built for World Network and developed by project contributor Tools for Humanity (TFH). To fully verify your World ID and receive your “proof of human” credential, you must visit an Orb in-person to verify you are a real and unique human. 

Here’s what happens, step by step, after you sign up for World App:

1. The Orb takes photos of your eyes and face.
2. The Orb creates a unique code based off of these photos, sends the photos and unique code to your device (your personal custody package), before deleting them.
3. Your device sends anonymous fragments of your unique code to the AMPC nodes to confirm you are a real and unique human verifying for the first time.
4. Your World ID is now verified.

Detailed information about how the Orb verifies a World ID can be found here.

Detailed information about anonymized multi-party computation (AMPC) can be found here.

Detailed information about data and the Orb can be found here.

Detailed information about personal custody can be found here.

Detailed information about privacy at World can be found here.

Who can use World ID?

World ID is part of an open source, permissionless protocol for humanity to use. All of the developer docs are freely available to the public.

Is the use of World ID linked to personal or biometric data?

World ID is designed to be used anonymously. Anyone can use it without providing personal information such as names, email addresses, phone numbers, social profiles, etc. 

A person’s World ID is generated on their device in World App before they visit the Orb, which takes photos to verify a person’s World ID and (if necessary) to recover it, and the related data is not shared with any third-party when using World ID.

More information

For more information about World ID, visit the World ID page, developer docs and World whitepaper. 

Step by step information on verifying your World ID and joining World Network can be found here.