A brave new world, a whole new Orb, proof of humanity: World (the company) loves to claim it’s changing the world (the planet/society). Its latest announcement says it is partnering with Mythical Games to “usher in a new era for in-game economies.”
“World is teaming up with Mythical Games, the studio behind hits like NFL Rivals, FIFA Rivals and Pudgy Party, to advance gaming in the age of AI,” says a blog. The studio will also launch the Mythos Chain, the first Layer 3 blockchain built on World Chain, a Level 2 chain secured by Ethereum.
World ID, World’s decentralized proof-of-personhood (PoP) and digital ID network, will be integrated into sign-on for games built in Mythical. The company says it will help stop bots from “bumming serious gamers out.” Rogue AI is being used to manipulate in-game economies, gain unfair advantages and snap up rewards.
“Nearly 75 percent of gamers say these uninvited ‘players’ are making games less fun,” World says. “Research on the topic found bot traffic on games hit 147 billion requests in one month (January 2024) – more than 6 times the traffic compared to the same period last year.”
World and Mythical promise “human-centered gaming.” But the vision is clearly centered on gamifying the world, so to speak, blurring the lines between physical and digital economies.
“Because Mythical’s games are built on blockchain infrastructure, asset ownership isn’t pretend,” says the blog. “Millions of players flock to Mythical’s titles not only because they’re fun, but also because the Mythical platform lets them truly own and trade their game assets. By integrating proof of human, Mythical ensures those economies stay fair and transparent.”
“World Chain prioritizes blockspace for humans, so bots can’t crowd out real players or inflate gas prices. World ID further protects tournaments, leaderboards and matchmaking from smurfing and farming.”
Why play games for fun when you can turn them into a hybrid of banking, online commerce and digital Risk? This is the “ownership economy,” wherein every digital transaction and asset can be assigned a value and attached to a verified identity – and this, apparently, is “human-centered gaming.”
Gaming, of course, is but one of the properties in World’s colossal project to transform everything into some version of itself. Age verification is also to be transformed by World ID, according to another blog, which makes the case for World as an age assurance provider, and announces it will soon be playing the role for Match Group’s dating apps.
Uploading identity documents can be daunting for some, and World is like, WTF? “Why do you need to give an online platform your driver’s license to watch a movie trailer?” Besides, it says, most age assurance methods create huge, scrumptious meals of data for greedy fraudsters.
“The current reality requires us to trust every website to individually secure massive repositories of identity documents – environments too tempting for criminals to resist.”
World ID, on the other hand, beckons not voracious fiends. “The app or service receives only what it needs: cryptographic confirmation you meet the age requirement. No names. No addresses. No documents stored on servers waiting to be breached.”
Verification with World ID happens on your device, and the only thing that leaves it is a zero-knowledge “mathematical confirmation that reveals nothing about your identity” while confirming a yes or no for authorization.
Now, it may seem supernatural to be able to verify age without knowing anything about anyone. Indeed, while World’s use of ZKPs means no uploading of IDs for document verification, it does use your device to read the secure chip in your passport, confirm your age locally, and generate that zero-knowledge cryptographic proof.
That’s not stopping organizations from signing up for World ID. A release from Medirom Healthcare Technologies Inc. says it has surpassed 10,000 verifications of World ID on Orbs installed at its Re.Ra.Ku wellness salons throughout Japan.
