World open-sources ProveKit for zero-knowledge identity proofs

World has open-sourced ProveKit, a zero-knowledge identity proving toolkit. World is formerly known as Worldcoin. OpenAI chief Sam Altman co-founded World. The release makes ProveKit available to developers outside World. The toolkit was used in World ID through early access in April. World said users can generate cryptographic proofs on their phones or browsers. Users can prove claims such as age, nationality and ownership of a valid identity document without revealing the underlying personal data. Verifiers receive confirmation of the specific claim being proven. World said ProveKit uses local proof generation instead of delegated proving. Sensitive personal information therefore does not need to be sent to external servers for processing. World said this reduces the risk of data exposure and keeps users in control of their personal information. The toolkit had been in development for about two years. ProveKit supports Noir, a language developed by Aztec for writing zero-knowledge applications. Developers can create new provable claims without including those claims directly in an app bundle. ProveKit is designed to run on standard consumer hardware, including smartphones and browsers. World said the toolkit can complete proofs in seconds on a typical phone. It said testing on a low-end device produced proofs in under 30 seconds. World said the data remains inaccessible to World Foundation, Tools for Humanity and other third parties. World ID credentials can store information from NFC chip-enabled identity documents locally on a user's device. Passports and national ID cards can include NFC chips that smartphones can read nearby. The issuing authority cryptographically signs those documents. That signature can be verified and proven in a zero-knowledge circuit. ProveKit targets 128-bit post-quantum security. The toolkit does not require a trusted setup. A World Foundation spokesperson said the best-known attacks, including quantum attacks, are expected to remain computationally infeasible at that security level. World said ProveKit v1 is production-ready and optimized for off-chain verification by servers, computers and mobile devices. ProveKit v2 is expected to reduce proof size, proving time and memory usage. World is also developing more efficient on-chain verification for v2. The company is exploring support for Groth16, a zk-SNARK proving scheme that the spokesperson said is efficient to verify on blockchains including World Chain, Ethereum, Base and Solana. The previous version of World ID used the Ethereum Foundation's Semaphore protocol, which also uses Groth16. Earlier this week, Brian Krebs reported that the New Orleans field office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating the dark web service Nexus. Nexus is selling scans of more than 153 million U.S. and Canadian driver's licenses. The data appeared to have been siphoned from identity verification company IDScan.net. World faces regulatory scrutiny over its biometric identity project in several markets, including Spain, Kenya, Brazil, Indonesia, South Korea, Hong Kong and the Philippines. World said it continues to engage with regulators as it expands globally.