What the Orb keeps after scanning your eye is a number

When @worldnetwork's Orb scans your eye, it does not keep a photograph. What it retains is something far more abstract: a number.

From iris to code

The Orb photographs your irises and converts them into a compact digital representation. According to World's own documentation, the images are then encrypted, sent directly to your phone, and permanently deleted from the device itself. The entire computation happens locally, on the Orb's hardware, before any data leaves it.

What travels onward is not a picture but an iris code, a 12,800-bit description of iris texture in the deployed system. World Foundation's technical documentation explains that this code is then split into encrypted fragments using a Secure Multi-Party Computation (SMPC) protocol, a cryptographic method that allows comparisons to be run across fragments without ever reconstructing the underlying data.

How uniqueness is checked, without identifying anyone

The unique humanness code is broken into fragments that are anonymized, encrypted, distributed, and securely stored across multiple independent parties, including Nethermind, the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU), Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), and UC Berkeley Center for Responsible Decentralized Intelligence (RDI).

Dedicated iris capture stations, called Orbs, are used to create both the iris codes and the corresponding mask, while ensuring the liveness property of the user. Matching itself is done by computing a normalized Hamming distance, which is then compared to a threshold. No name, no face, and no image ever enters that comparison.

The iris code is signed with the Orb's unique private key and submitted for comparison against all other iris codes to verify uniqueness. Worldcoin does not use your iris to identify who you are, only to verify that you are unique.

Privacy advocates and regulators remain cautious. Despite encryption and decentralization, ongoing privacy and data control risks persist. The irreversible nature of biometric data presents significant challenges, especially when it comes to user consent and data security. Kenya has suspended World's operations over privacy concerns, and India raised flags about the lack of clear regulatory oversight.

The network continues to grow regardless. As of late April 2025, roughly 31.6 million users are part of the World Network, and 14.6 million of them have had their irises scanned to become Orb-verified in more than 160 countries.

Sources:
World Foundation: Understanding the Orb and why Worldcoin uses biometrics
World Foundation: SMPC system and iris code deletion
World Foundation: Privacy FAQs