Sam Altman's World Takes Aim at The Identity Data Problem

World Opens ProveKit to Outside Developers

World, the digital identity project co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, has open-sourced ProveKit, a zero-knowledge proof toolkit designed for privacy-preserving identity verification. World, formerly known as Worldcoin, released the toolkit to external developers after it had been used internally within World ID through an early access period beginning in April.

ProveKit lets users prove claims such as age, nationality, and valid ID ownership without revealing personal data. Cryptographic proofs are generated directly on a user's phone or browser, and the verifier receives only confirmation of the specific claim being proven, not the underlying personal information.

ProveKit had been in development for about two years before its public release. It is now available on GitHub under the permissive MIT license. The toolkit supports Noir, the Rust-inspired language developed by Aztec for writing zero-knowledge applications, and allows developers to create new provable claims without requiring those claims to be bundled directly inside an app.

Built for Mobile, Audited for Security

Most zero-knowledge proof systems are computationally heavy, designed to run on servers or specialized hardware. ProveKit was built from the ground up for mobile and resource-constrained devices, using SIMD-accelerated arithmetic to extract performance from everyday smartphone processors. Based on benchmarks, it can complete proofs in seconds on a typical phone and in under 30 seconds on a low-end device.

ProveKit produces WHIR proofs designed around post-quantum security assumptions. For a planned v2 release, World intends to reduce proof size and generation time, and is also considering support for the Groth16 zk-SNARK method to enable more efficient on-chain verification across networks including World Chain, Ethereum, Base, and Solana.

The release fits into a broader push by World to position privacy-preserving authentication as neutral, permissionless, and openly accessible infrastructure. By making ProveKit available under an open license, World is inviting the wider developer community to build on the same cryptographic stack that powers its own identity product.

Sources:
The Block: World open-sources ProveKit, a zero-knowledge identity proving toolkit
Crypto Briefing: World open-sources ProveKit, a zero-knowledge identity toolkit built for mobile devices
GitHub: worldfnd/ProveKit (official repository)