Worldcoin Releases Tokenomics, Report Geofenced for Some Countries

The tokenomics of the Worldcoin (WLD) project were released on Monday after the launch of the mainnet, although CoinDesk reporters in four countries had trouble accessing the site.

CoinDesk staff using multiple devices in Greece, India, Italy and the U.K. saw a message saying the content, part of the project's whitepaper, was geofenced, when trying to access the link. The company is looking into the issue, representatives said.

Further, the World App is "at capacity" and is "experiencing high loads" such that users might face disruption, a notice on the app said around 13.30 UTC on Monday.

The highly anticipated project had been airdropping beta tokens to users verified with its iris-scanning Orb for the past month or so. Beta tokens are closer to I Owe You's prior to the network launch, as opposed to on-chain tokens.

After updating the app, verified users can receive a 25 WLD "genesis grant" to their wallets. The grants only happen in countries where regulations allow for them, which doesn't include the U.S.

The token has seen major price surges in top exchanges, which rushed to list it.

One CoinDesk reporter was able to access the tokenomics site, and gathered some details. The site has since been unavailable on that device, but a Worldcoin representative confirmed these details.

WLD supply will be capped at 10 billion tokens for 15 years, at which point the governance of the network can decide to implement an inflation rate of up to 1.5%, as well as how to allocate the minted tokens.

At launch, the maximum circulating supply of WLD is 143 million, 43 million of which will be allocated to users verified during pre-launch and 100 million will be given in loans that will expire in three months to non-U.S. market makers, the firm said.

75% of the tokens have been earmarked for the community, 13.5% to investors of Tools for Humanity, 9.8% to the initial development team and 1.7% in reserve. The allocation to insiders has increased to 25% from 20% stated earlier because the process of developing and launching the network was more "complex and costly" that initially thought, as well as the challenging market environment. Investor and team tokens will be locked up at launch and slowly released after the first year and for the next two years.

All 7.5 billion WLD, which will go to the community was minted before the launch, and the foundation aims to allocate 6 billion of those to users, but they will be unlocked over 15 years, said a Worldcoin representative. However, none of the tokens allocated to users are locked up, said the representative. Not all 2.5 billion WLD for insiders has been allocated.

UPDATE (July 24, 13:50 UTC): Adds details on app congestion in third paragraph.