Worldcoin Expands To United States
U.S. users can access the World App and claim WLD tokens upon completing verification by visiting an Orb innovation hub.
Quick Take
Worldcoin expands to the U.S.
Vitalik outlines decentralization goals.
ERCs for interop addresses.
Pectra goes live on Gnosis.
Worldcoin Expands To United States
Worldcoin, the digital identity project co-founded by OpenAI’s Sam Altman, is expanding onboarding to the United States after previously excluding U.S. users due to regulatory uncertainty. The announcement was made during the Worldcoin keynote event, where the team unveiled plans to bring Orb verification to six U.S. cities. Worldcoin also announced that Orbs will now be manufactured in the U.S., with 7,500 units set to be deployed nationwide. U.S. users can access the World App and claim a WLD token airdrop upon completing verification, which requires scanning their iris with the Orb. Other announcements included a Stripe integration, the launch of a Visa-compatible World Card, and upcoming support for native USDC and CCTP V2 on World Chain.
Vitalik On Decentralization Goals
Vitalik Buterin published an Ethereum Magicians post outlining the tradeoffs of raising Ethereum’s L1 gas limit, including increased hardware and bandwidth demands on full nodes. He argues the change is net positive, as technologies like zk proofs and statelessness enable powerful nodes to simplify verification for light clients. He proposed a three-tier node model consisting of light nodes for verification and data access, medium nodes for consensus and inclusion, and heavy nodes for zk proving and block building. The goal is to keep light nodes lightweight, medium nodes moderately accessible, and heavy nodes resource-intensive but decentralized.
ERCs For Interoperable Addresses
During this week’s EF L2 Interop Working Group call, contributors shared progress on interoperable addresses through two proposed standards: ERC-7930, which defines a compact binary format for uniquely identifying addresses across chains, and ERC-7828, which builds on it with a human-readable format that integrates with naming systems like ENS for improved UX in wallets. Together, the ERCs aim to standardize how chain, address pairs are referenced, resolving cross-chain inconsistencies. Both ERCs are open now for community feedback ahead of a planned finalization on May 9th.
Pectra Goes Live On Gnosis Chain
The Pectra hard fork has successfully activated on Gnosis Chain, bringing account abstraction, improved validator experience, and blob scaling to the Ethereum sister chain. The upgrade also enables Type 4 transactions from EIP-7702, allowing EOAs to temporarily adopt smart contract behavior by setting custom code. Gnosis founder Martin Koeppelmann demonstrated the feature by sending xDAI to two addresses in a single transaction. Pectra is scheduled to activate on Ethereum mainnet on Wednesday, May 7, 2025.
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