World Network’s Chief Architect on Building a Human-First Internet

Adrian Ludwig, Chief Architect at Tools for Humanity (TFH), shared insights on the rapid development of the World Network—a system designed to create a network of verified humans using privacy-preserving technology, in an exclusive interview with BeInCrypto in Seoul.

As the overseer of technology and strategy across TFH, World Operators, and World App users, Ludwig brings extensive security expertise to the project. Before joining TFH, he served as CISO and chief trust officer at Atlassian and as Director of Android Security at Google, where he protected over 2 billion Android users.

Ludwig, who champions openness and decentralization as organizational cornerstones, discussed how the World Network has evolved beyond its initial identity verification methodology to address critical challenges in today’s internet landscape, from bot proliferation to privacy concerns in digital identity systems.

Read More: What is World project?

The World project is well known for its identity verification methodology. Could you provide an update on what has recently happened with the project?

The project has made progress across multiple areas. On the technology front, our most significant achievement has been around privacy. We introduced AMPC about a year ago, using secure multi-party computation to distribute biometric data across multiple parties, ensuring no single party has access.

We’ve integrated zero-knowledge proofs, enabling proof of personhood without revealing information. Since October, we’ve incorporated national identity cards from around 25 jurisdictions including the US and South Korea.

Our infrastructure has grown rapidly—over 30 locations in South Korea and around 500 globally, with plans to expand to thousands by mid-year. This has resulted in 12 million verified users.

We launched Mini Apps that leverage both crypto and identity layers. World App now serves over 25 million users, making it one of the largest crypto wallets. We also launched World Chain, our Layer 2 blockchain focused on scalability, which already ranks among the top in transaction volume.

The Orb technology seems to be an innovative approach to identity verification. How do you envision people and businesses utilizing this technology?

Our vision includes flagship locations and smaller spaces like coffee shops. We introduced the Citizen Operator program where local operators can independently run Orbs. We’re also working toward a self-service model, allowing verification without staff assistance. Since the Orb design is open source, anyone can build one.

The core issue we’re addressing is preserving online integrity against bots. For example, Wikipedia’s infrastructure costs increased by 50% due to bot scraping. In gaming, players prefer human opponents – over 80% of South Korean respondents supported biometric verification. Our partnership with Razer integrates World ID into games, ensuring human-centered interactions that platforms are willing to pay for.

Beyond differentiating humans from bots, what other valuable use cases do you see for World ID technology?

We’re seeing strong interest around proof of age, which is critical for regulatory compliance without asking for full personal details like name or ID number. That’s a great fit for our zero-knowledge proof systems.

Another category involves regional access control. Taiwan is exploring how digital services can be restricted to verified citizens, particularly in sensitive political communities. The concern is foreign actors posing as citizens to influence discourse.

World ID could serve as infrastructure for verifying age, nationality, and potentially a wide range of credentials while maintaining privacy.

Read More: World Network in Talks with Visa to Launch Stablecoin Payments Wallet

How do you envision World ID working alongside national identity systems and government infrastructure?

We’re in active conversations with several governments about integrating their national ID systems with World ID. These discussions are still early, but we’ve had productive exchanges with countries like Malaysia and others.

Governments are interested in World ID for regulatory compliance, allowing businesses to verify attributes like age without collecting personal data. They’re also interested in fraud prevention – since World ID determines global uniqueness, it can help detect duplicate identities in benefit programs, verifying uniqueness across millions rapidly.

Additionally, governments want their citizens to access global services without disclosing sensitive information. With World ID, citizens could prove qualifications without revealing citizenship status or ID details, enabling privacy-preserving access to international services.

Some people express concerns about biometric data security. How does World ID address these concerns and protect user privacy?

It’s understandable that people fear what they don’t fully understand. The Orb is essentially a high-resolution camera that takes a photo—nothing more—and that image is immediately handed back to the user.

We’ve taken two major steps to ensure privacy and security. First, all data is encrypted using the strongest methods available. Second, the data is split across multiple parties using secure multi-party computation, meaning no single entity—not even us—has full access to your biometric data.

Compare that to when you enter a theme park where they take your photo. You have no idea where that image goes or how it’s stored. Our system is far more secure and privacy-preserving.

World ID follows a different data philosophy aligned with Web3 values. You control your data. This isn’t about surveillance—it’s simply about verifying you’re human.

With your experience across both Web2 and Web3 environments, how would you describe World’s unique approach to privacy?

World is being built as a protocol, with decentralization and openness at its core. Privacy and security are baked into the design, regardless of who’s operating it.

Our standard is: “If someone I don’t trust were to deploy this protocol, could I still trust the system?” The answer must be yes. That’s the only way to build global infrastructure.

Take the Orb—we manufacture it now, but future manufacturers will enter the space. As a user, I shouldn’t have to trust each manufacturer individually. I should only need to trust the underlying cryptography and protocol.

That’s the Web3 approach—trust in code, not intermediaries. Web2 companies operate in a centralized model, where users must trust the entity operating the platform.