World ID FAQs

World ID is an anonymous proof of human that empowers millions of individuals to securely prove their humanness online. 
World ID is stored on your mobile phone, enabling you to anonymously prove you’re a real and unique human, not a bot, when using online services and a variety of Mini Apps. It provides a simple, reusable  way to authenticate as human online – anonymously – in a world where advancements in technology have blurred the distinction between humans and AI.

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 permanently deleting them.
3. Your device sends anonymous MPC fragments of your unique code to the MPC 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 (MPC) 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.

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

No. 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.

When a person uses their World ID, a zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) prevents third parties from tracking the person across applications. ZKPs also guarantee that the use of World ID is not tied to any biometric data or the unique code used to verify the person is a human and unique. 

World ID uses an open source protocol known as Semaphore that confirms verifications cannot be tracked to a person’s identity, nor to verifications in other applications.

• A detailed conversation about ZKPs and Semaphore can be found here.
• An overview of the most important World privacy protections can be found here.

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.

You can also join the World conversation on Twitter/X, Telegram, Discord, YouTube and LinkedIn.

This blog was updated on November 26, 2025.