Layer 2 blockchain · settles to Ethereum
World Chain ticker WLD
Summary
Optimistic rollup on Ethereum built from the OP Stack. One sequencer, hosted on Alchemy, orders transactions into 2-second blocks. Block contents come from the World Chain Builder, which Tools for Humanity runs and connects through rollup-boost, a sidecar it built with Flashbots; the builder puts transactions from Orb-verified World ID holders at the top of each block (Priority Blockspace for Humans), and the sequencer falls back to its own block if the builder fails. A batcher posts transaction data to Ethereum so anyone can rebuild the chain. State claims reach Ethereum through permissioned fault-proof games: one proposer posts them and only a 3-of-8 multisig may challenge. Users can force a transaction in through Ethereum, with up to a 12-hour delay. Block production uses no stake or work of its own. 112161920212324
Design
- System
- Layer 2 blockchainWorld Chain Mainnet (chain ID 480) is an OP Stack optimistic rollup that posts all transaction data to Ethereum. ETH pays gas; WLD is an 18-decimal token contract on World Chain that does not pay gas, and it is used in the display name because World Chain has no gas token of its own. L2BEAT groups World Chain with 'Others' rather than rated rollups because fewer than five outside parties can challenge state claims. It keeps the Layer 2 class because its data, bridge and withdrawals are anchored to Ethereum.
- Settles to
- EthereumAll transaction data is posted to Ethereum. OP Stack blocks become final once the Ethereum block holding their data is finalized, typically 15 to 30 minutes after submission per Optimism docs. World's docs say native-bridge withdrawals take about 7 days; L2BEAT describes a state-root challenge period of at least 3.5 days and a 7-day withdrawal wait. Withdrawals depend on one permissioned proposer and on a 3-of-8 multisig that can upgrade the Ethereum contracts with no delay; the Optimism Security Council, acting as guardian, can pause withdrawals.
- Settlement family
- Ethereum / EVM
- Scarce resource
- Other
- State model
- Accounts
- Finality
- Other
- Who makes blocks
- One sequencer. World's launch post says the chain is hosted on Alchemy, and World's June 2025 post says Tools for Humanity operates the World Chain Builder that assembles blocks. World Chain's own draft proposal WIP-1005 says one proposer posts state claims every 20 minutes; L2BEAT says only permissioned games are allowed and names a 3-of-8 multisig it labels Alchemy Multisig 1 as the upgrade-key holder.
- Fork choice
- No open L2 fork choice: the sequencer's blocks are canonical and it can still reorganize them until their data lands on Ethereum; after that the chain is derived from Ethereum data and Ethereum's finality governs it. Fault-proof games affect only bridge withdrawals, not which chain is canonical. A July 2026 draft proposal would add a WLD-staked attestation layer over recent blocks; it is not live.
Qualifications
- Scarce resource · Not applicable. World Chain block production uses no stake or work of its own; the sequencer is assigned by the operator, and security comes from Ethereum data availability plus the permissioned proposer and challenger.
- Finality · Partial. OP Stack chains have three stages: unsafe (in a sequencer block, which the sequencer can still reorganize), safe (data posted to Ethereum) and finalized (the Ethereum block holding the data is final). World Chain's builder also streams partial blocks about every 200 ms as preconfirmations; these are promises from one operator, not finality.
- Fraud proofs · Partial. Dispute-game contracts on Ethereum use Optimism's Cannon fault-proof virtual machine with a starting program state that L2BEAT names as OP absolute prestate v1.9.0, but only permissioned games are allowed: one proposer posts claims and only a 3-of-8 multisig can challenge. L2BEAT says funds can be stolen if no whitelisted challenger disputes an invalid state root in time.
- Upgrade authority · Applies. The Superchain Registry names the address that owns the upgrade keys, and L2BEAT identifies it as a 3-of-8 multisig it labels Alchemy Multisig 1 that can upgrade the Ethereum contracts instantly; L2BEAT records its threshold falling from 5-of-8 to 3-of-8 in the August 2026 upgrade. The signers' identities are not published.
- Superchain membership · Partial. World's docs describe World Chain as part of the Superchain, but the Superchain Registry marks it as not governed by Optimism: its own multisig holds the upgrade keys, while the shared Optimism guardian can pause withdrawals. Optimism's Jovian and Karst upgrade notices do not name World Chain, and World Chain activated both upgrades on its own dates.
- Priority blockspace for humans · Partial. Priority for verified humans is an ordering policy of the operator-run builder, not a consensus rule: the sequencer falls back to its own block if the builder fails, and part of each block is always left for other transactions. An April 2026 draft proposal would replace it with a subsidy model.
- Network status · Applies. World Chain Mainnet was producing blocks at review time and the Alchemy-hosted status page showed no incidents for 13 to 27 September 2026. No sunset or migration notice was found, and World Chain activated the Karst upgrade on 21 September 2026 per the Superchain Registry.
Tradeoffs
- Emphasizes
- Scalability
- Gives up
- Decentralized operation and withdrawal security: one Alchemy-hosted sequencer includes every transaction, a builder run by Tools for Humanity sets the ordering, one permissioned proposer posts state claims, only a 3-of-8 multisig may challenge them, and that multisig can upgrade the Ethereum contracts instantly with no exit window, per L2BEAT.Posting all transaction data to Ethereum and the 12-hour forced-inclusion path are the Ethereum-derived protections that remain. L2BEAT names a real fault-proof program for the dispute game, but only whitelisted parties can play it. World Chain's 2026 draft proposals aim at a one-day challenge window with several independent proofs and at a staked attestation layer; none is active.
- Full node at home
- Demanding 8101922The simple-worldchain-node repository linked from World's node guide recommends 8 or more CPU cores, at least 32 GB RAM, more than 4 TB of NVMe SSD and at least 100 Mbps download, plus an Ethereum RPC and an Ethereum beacon endpoint; World's node-setup page specifies a beacon archive endpoint so the node can fetch blob data. That repository runs World's own client, an extension of op-reth. World's node-setup page still names op-geth as the default client, which Optimism stopped supporting on 31 May 2026 and which cannot follow the Karst upgrade that World Chain activated on 21 September 2026.
- Throughput claims
- No classified figure recorded
Scaling layers
No scaling layer recorded in this profile.
Capabilities
| Capability | How it is provided | Notes and sources |
|---|---|---|
| Account abstraction | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Atomic swaps | Unknown | A protocol-level trust-minimized swap mechanism on World Chain was not reviewed; EVM contracts could implement hash-locked swaps, but none was verified. |
| Authenticated data publication | Unknown | Not yet assessed under this row's current definition. |
| Light clients | Unknown | No World Chain light client was reviewed. State claims on Ethereum come from one permissioned proposer, so checking World Chain state against them would trust that proposer and the whitelisted challenger. |
| Native staking or delegation | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| On-chain governance | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Parallel execution | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Payment or state channels | Unknown | No payment or state channel layer anchored to World Chain was reviewed. |
| Programmable spending | Native (protocol or core-team software) Earlier definition | World Chain is EVM-equivalent, so spend conditions are smart contracts. Its priority lane runs through an account-abstraction entry point that checks a World ID proof. 513 |
| Protocol-verified messaging | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Reversible transfers or recovery | Unknown | Not yet assessed under this row's current definition. |
| Rollups | Unknown | In October 2025 World announced that Mythical Games' Mythos Chain would be the first Layer 3 built on World Chain, and a December 2025 World Foundation post lists its launch as a completed milestone. Its stack, data availability and operating status were not verified, and L2BEAT does not track it. 2627 |
| Shielded transfers | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Signed partial offers | Unknown | Not yet assessed under this row's current definition. |
Reading these values
- How this feature is provided
- Built into the protocol, core-team software or independent software says where a feature lives and who can change it. These are implementation layers, not quality: core-team software is not closer to the protocol than independent software.
- Structured assessment pending
- The shared review has not assessed this feature for any chain yet (Account abstraction, Native staking or delegation, On-chain governance, Parallel execution, Protocol-verified messaging and Shielded transfers). That does not mean it is absent, and a chain’s profile may already describe it.
- Unknown
- The review has not established this for this chain under the current definition; the note beside it says why. Unknown is not absent and not a low score. A feature reads “Not present” only when a source shows it is absent.
- Earlier definition
- Payment or state channels, Programmable spending and Rollups keep the earlier definition until the next fact-check. There, “Native” does not separate the protocol from core-team software, “Ecosystem software” does not say who publishes it, and “Partial” does not say which layer.
- Reading across rows
- The list of capabilities is incomplete. Do not read these rows as a chain leading or lagging overall.
Ecosystem & custody
| Product type | Status | Notes and sources |
|---|---|---|
| Automated market makers | Established in the ecosystemUniswap v3, Uniswap v4 | Uniswap lists a v4 deployment on World Chain, and DefiLlama's DEX tracker attributed nearly all World Chain DEX volume in the 30 days before review to Uniswap v3 and v4, with small amounts on HumanFi and X3X. Liquidity depth was not measured. 3132 |
| Issuer-native stablecoins | Established in the ecosystemUSDC (Circle) | Circle lists World Chain on its USDC contract-address page (0x79A02482A880bCE3F13e09Da970dC34db4CD24d1), and World announced on 11 June 2025 that native USDC and Circle's transfer protocol version 2 went live and that Circle had converted all bridged USDC then held on World Chain to native USDC. Native means issuer-issued on World Chain, not a protocol asset. Tether's supported-protocol list does not name World Chain. 9252830 |
| Algorithmic stablecoins | Unknown | Algorithmic or hybrid stablecoins on World Chain were not reviewed. |
| Bridges | Native to the protocolWorld Chain standard bridge (OP Stack contracts, Alchemy interface), Circle CCTP V2, Across, Superbridge, Chainlink CCIP, LayerZero, Hyperlane | The native bridge is the OP Stack standard bridge; World's docs say withdrawals back to Ethereum take about 7 days. Circle lists World Chain as a supported chain for its cross-chain transfer protocol version 2, which moves native USDC by burning and minting. World's docs list further third-party bridges; their current World Chain support was not checked one by one. Risk: Native-bridge withdrawals depend on one permissioned proposer and a whitelisted challenger, and a 3-of-8 multisig can upgrade the bridge contracts instantly with no exit window, per L2BEAT. Circle's transfer protocol trusts Circle's attestation service, and third-party bridges add their own operator and contract risks. 36192029 |
| Block explorers | Established in the ecosystemWorldscan (built by Etherscan), Blockscout (worldchain-mainnet.explorer.alchemy.com) | World's docs list Worldscan, Blockscout and Dora. Worldscan and the Alchemy-hosted Blockscout instance were serving World Chain Mainnet data at review time; Dora returned a payment-required response and was not checked. Explorer indexes are not canonical consensus. 73334 |
| Hardware wallets | ThinTrezor Safe 3, 5 and 7 (through MetaMask or Rabby) | See custody rows: Trezor's Ethereum and WLD pages list World Chain among supported networks, but Trezor Suite's own network list does not include it, so use goes through MetaMask or Rabby; World Chain is absent from Ledger's own wallet app network configuration. 35363740 |
Hardware-wallet custody
| Device maker | Status | What users can and cannot do |
|---|---|---|
| Ledger | UnknownSame as native: Unknown | Cannot: Manage World Chain accounts in Ledger's own wallet app: World Chain has no entry in the app's open-source EVM network configurationLedger coin pages tried for World Chain and WLD returned 404, and the first page of Ledger's supported crypto assets list did not name them. Whether a Ledger device can sign World Chain transactions through a third-party wallet was not confirmed on a Ledger page. 3738 |
| Trezor | Through an intermediaryMetaMask or Rabby (third-party wallet apps named by Trezor)Same as native: Unknown | Can: Send and receive ETH and WLD on World Chain with a Trezor Safe 3, Safe 5 or Safe 7 through MetaMask or Rabby; Trezor's WLD and Ethereum pages list World Chain among supported networks Can: Hold WLD on Ethereum or OP Mainnet in Trezor Suite, networks that Suite supports and that Trezor's WLD page lists Cannot: Manage World Chain accounts in Trezor Suite itself: Suite's current network list does not include World ChainTrezor has no World Chain network page, and its WLD and Ethereum pages name Trezor Suite, MetaMask and Rabby without tying them to networks. Because Trezor Suite's current network code has no World Chain entry, the working path is a third-party wallet. Older Trezor models were not reviewed for WLD. 353640 |
Public data
iKnow Blockchain has no public-data lookups for World Chain yet. This is a limit of the service, not a statement about the network.
| Lookup | Status | What it covers and its limits |
|---|---|---|
| Address or account | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
| Tokens and assets | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
| NFTs | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
| Transactions | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
Sourced developments
Developments: Review overdue Reviewed Sep 27, 2026; next review was due Oct 7, 2026, 12:00 UTC.
Publication date · newest first
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World Chain activated the OP Stack Karst upgrade
The Superchain Registry sets World Chain's Karst activation at 21 September 2026, 12:00 UTC. World's client release v2.4.3 of 31 August 2026 said upgrading was mandatory for Karst compatibility, and L2BEAT's change log records the Ethereum-side contracts being upgraded on 25 August 2026, with the upgrade multisig's threshold lowered from 5-of-8 to 3-of-8.
- Implementation:client release v2.4.3 published 2026-08-31
- Release:mandatory release for node operators
- Activation:active since 2026-09-21 per the Superchain Registry
Sources: Optimism (ethereum-optimism/superchain-registry) — Superchain Registry: mainnet/worldchain.toml (external site) · Worldcoin on GitHub — World Chain client v2.4.3 (external site) · Optimism Docs — Upgrade 19: Karst hard fork (external site) · L2BEAT — World Chain (external site) · Optimism Docs — op-geth and op-program deprecation (external site)
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Draft proposal for WLD-staked validators on World Chain
WIP-1008 proposes an overlay of up to 128 WLD-staked validators that would attest to recent blocks and contribute transaction lists at the start of each block, giving recent blocks a stake-backed confirmation before Ethereum finality. The sequencer would remain the only block producer.
- Proposal:Draft
- Implementation:not implemented on mainnet
- Release:None
- Activation:not active
Sources: Worldcoin on GitHub — WIP-1008: Staked Subblocks and Unsafe-Head BFT (external site) · Worldcoin on GitHub — World Chain Improvement Proposals (WIPs) (external site)
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Draft proposals to replace World Chain's permissioned fault proofs
WIP-1005 and WIP-1006 propose moving from the permissioned fault-proof game to a design with a one-day challenge window, three proof lanes (validity proof, trusted hardware and Security Council) and WLD-denominated bonds. A pre-release of proof components followed on 25 August 2026, and further release-candidate tags followed, the latest being rc.4 on 13 September 2026. None of these is a final release or a mainnet activation.
- Proposal:Draft
- Implementation:proof components at release-candidate stage: rc.1 pre-release published 2026-08-25; latest tag rc.4 on 2026-09-13
- Release:release candidates only; no final proofs v1.0.0 release in the repository's release feed at review time
- Activation:not active
Sources: Worldcoin on GitHub — WIP-1005: Proof System Upgrade (external site) · Worldcoin on GitHub — WIP-1006: Proof System Architecture (external site) · Worldcoin on GitHub — Releases: worldcoin/world-chain (external site) · Worldcoin on GitHub — Proofs v1.0.0-rc.4 (external site) · L2BEAT — World Chain (external site)
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World Chain activated the OP Stack Jovian upgrade
The Superchain Registry sets World Chain's Jovian activation at 1 May 2026, 00:00 UTC, five months after OP Mainnet. Optimism's notice describes Jovian as adding a configurable minimum base fee, a per-block limit on estimated data use and a revised operator fee formula.
- Implementation:Activated
- Release:part of the OP Stack Jovian release
- Activation:active since 2026-05-01 per the Superchain Registry
Sources: Optimism (ethereum-optimism/superchain-registry) — Superchain Registry: mainnet/worldchain.toml (external site) · Optimism Docs — Upgrade 17: Jovian (external site)
Topics your AI can explain
Your AI can explain these topics for World Chain through the connection, with sources.
Known gaps
What this profile's review did not establish:
- The legal operator of the World Chain sequencer is not published; World's launch post says only that the chain is hosted on Alchemy, and Tools for Humanity is named only as the builder operator.
- The identities of the eight upgrade-multisig signers and of the proposer are not published; the multisig's 'Alchemy Multisig 1' label comes from L2BEAT only.
- World's docs disagree with each other and with the chain on basic parameters: the block gas limit appears as 30 million on one page and 80 million on another, while World Chain blocks carried a 280 million gas limit at review time, and the upgrade list on the network page stops at January 2025.
- World's node-setup page still offers op-geth, which cannot follow Karst; current storage growth and bandwidth needs beyond the linked repository's minimums were not captured.
- The monthly number of priority transactions per verified human and the share of each block reserved for them are set by the builder and not published in the specs.
- World's features page describes the free gas allowance for verified humans in the future tense (initially funded by the World Foundation, with a World ID-gated paymaster as the simplest option); whether and how it runs today, and its size, were not confirmed.
- Whether the Mythos Chain Layer 3 announced in October 2025 is live, and how it settles to World Chain, was not verified.
- Ledger support was not verified either way; the Trezor rating rests on Trezor Suite's current network code, which has no World Chain entry.
- The Dora explorer returned a payment-required response; third-party bridges listed in World's docs were not checked for current support.
- Atomic-swap, reversible-transfer and recovery, light-client, channel and algorithmic-stablecoin surfaces on World Chain were not reviewed; no throughput claims were recorded.
- The on-chain reads that confirmed the 3-of-8 threshold, the permissioned game type, the withdrawal delays and that the only permitted challenger is the same upgrade multisig are recorded in the review report, not as citable pages; L2BEAT's page does not name the challenger.
Sources
Oldest dated source check: Source checked Sep 27, 2026 Next check due Oct 27, 2026.
- World Chain network information (external site)
- World Chain features (external site)
- Funding a Wallet (external site)
- Transaction fees (external site)
- EVM Equivalence (external site)
- Bridges (external site)
- Block Explorers (external site)
- How to Set Up a World Chain Node (external site)
- Useful Contract Deployments (external site)
- worldcoin-foundation/simple-worldchain-node (external site)
- worldcoin/world-chain (external site)
- PBH Architecture (external site)
- PBH Validation (external site)
- Flashblocks P2P (external site)
- WIP-1003: World ID Transaction Subsidies (draft) (external site)
- WIP-1005: Proof System Upgrade (draft) (external site)
- WIP-1006: Proof System Architecture (draft) (external site)
- WIP-1008: Staked Subblocks and Unsafe-Head BFT (draft) (external site)
- Superchain Registry: mainnet/worldchain.toml (external site)
- World Chain (external site)
- Transaction finality (external site)
- op-geth and op-program deprecation (external site)
- World Chain is now open to every human (external site)
- Priority Blockspace launches for 13 million humans on World Chain mainnet (external site)
- World integrates Circle's USDC and CCTP (external site)
- Mythical Games and World (external site)
- Building a WLD-native economy across the World protocol (external site)
- USDC Contract Addresses (external site)
- CCTP Supported Blockchains (external site)
- Supported Protocols (external site)
- v4 Deployments (external site)
- DEX overview for World Chain (API) (external site)
- World Chain Mainnet Blockchain Explorer (Worldscan) (external site)
- World Chain explorer (external site)
- Worldcoin (WLD) wallet (external site)
- Ethereum wallet (external site)
- Ledger Live EVM network configuration (families/evm/config.ts) (external site)
- Supported crypto assets (external site)
- World Chain Mainnet status (external site)
- trezor-suite: Ethereum-style network configuration (develop branch) (external site)
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Funding disclosure
Funding disclosures appear here when an upkeep arrangement exists, in the form “Upkeep funded by [name]; verdicts unaffected.” The funder ledger has not been published yet. Neutrality & funding