Today, the Worldcoin Foundation open sourced core components of the orb’s software, now publicly available on GitHub under an MIT/Apache 2.0 dual license.
The new open-source components add to Worldcoin’s public hardware and iris recognition repositories, helping to advance the Worldcoin Tech Tree.
The Orb is a solution designed to verify human identity online, emphasizing privacy and security. Its development marks a significant step in distinguishing humans from artificial intelligence (AI) by using biometric verification methods.
The release of these components is crucial for the Orb’s operation, which involves capturing images and securely transferring them to the World App. This system supports the World ID verification process, offering the highest level of verification to confirm an individual’s humanness. It achieves this through a series of checks that begin with eye and face image analysis, followed by an iris verification process. These steps collectively ensure the individual’s uniqueness, completing the verification swiftly.
Privacy and security are foundational to the Orb’s use case, setting unprecedented requirements for a biometric device. It processes images directly on the device and securely transfers them to the user, bypassing the need for external storage or central backend processing. Additionally, the device is designed to be highly resistant to spoofing and tampering, critical for maintaining integrity in potentially adversarial environments. Transparency and verifiability are also key, enabling public auditing of the Orbs, including software and cryptographic key checks.
The Orb’s technical infrastructure is powered by Tools for Humanity (TFH), which has dedicated years to developing a secure computing environment for the device. Central to its architecture is the NVIDIA Jetson, which processes data from five camera streams to verify World ID in moments. The device also incorporates two Arm Cortex M4 microcontrollers for various controls and a secure element for storing cryptographic keys, ensuring both efficiency and security in its operations.
Software-wise, the Orb runs multiple Rust applications on the Jetson, utilizing asynchronous programming and NVIDIA’s TensorRT engine for neural network inference. This setup leverages the Jetson’s powerful GPU to handle essential functions such as sensor data processing and system updates efficiently.
Finally, the device is powered by Orb OS, a custom GNU/Linux distribution that prioritizes security. This operating system features system integrity checks, a security-hardened configuration, and a comprehensive update system. It also supports reproducible builds and facilitates critical cryptographic operations by interfacing with a trusted execution environment (TEE) on the Jetson and the secure element, ensuring the Orb operates securely and effectively in verifying human identity.
The today’s release of key software components of the Orb, including the do_signup function in orb-core, marks a significant advancement in the World ID verification process. This function orchestrates the sequence of capturing images, processing biometric data, and securely transmitting signed iris codes to a uniqueness verification service. Additionally, it oversees the secure transfer of user images to their World App, ensuring privacy and security throughout the process.
Worldcoin was Co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Max Novendstern, and Alex Blania in 2019.
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