Token lock-ups extended for early Worldcoin contributors at Tools for Humanity

The majority of all WLD tokens will be given to individuals with verified World IDs  – simply for being a unique human. As of today, more than 6 million unique humans participate in the Worldcoin network in this way. 

Starting July 24, 2024, the WLD tokens allocated to the investors and team members of Tools for Humanity (TFH), early contributors to the Worldcoin project, are scheduled to begin unlocking daily in a linear fashion. This week, TFH informed the Worldcoin Foundation that—in a move aligned with the long-term nature of Worldcoin’s mission— the unlock schedule for 80% of the WLD held by TFH’s team members and investors is being extended from 3 to 5 years.

WLD grants for verified World ID holders are not affected.

The mission of the Worldcoin project is to become the world’s largest identity and financial network, giving ownership to everyone. If successful, the network will represent key infrastructure essential for a world where AI plays an increasingly important role. Today, more than 6 million people have an orb-verified World ID – a secure and anonymous digital passport that allows them to prove their humanness online and to participate in the Worldcoin network.

The majority of WLD tokens will be given to individuals simply for being a unique human. To this end, the Worldcoin Foundation regularly grants WLD tokens to individuals with an orb-verified World ID and the majority of WLD tokens in circulation have entered this way.* To date, more than 211 million WLD have been claimed by World ID holders, representing more than 77% of the 275 million WLD currently in circulation. As of today, there are 7.22 billion WLD remaining in the Worldcoin Community pool, which is administered by the Worldcoin Foundation and its affiliate entity World Assets Ltd for the purpose of supporting the long-term sustainability of the Worldcoin project.

Tools for Humanity (TFH) assisted with the initial development of Worldcoin and transitioned stewardship of the protocol to the independent Worldcoin Foundation ahead of the protocol’s launch nearly a year ago. Today, TFH continues to provide services to the Worldcoin Foundation and operates World App, the first Worldcoin-compatible wallet.

As described in the Worldcoin Whitepaper, from the company’s founding in 2019, TFH’s investors and team members (employees, consultants, advisers and other service providers) were allocated locked WLD tokens for their respective contributions. These tokens were locked to allow the protocol to mature before these groups would be able to access their token allocation(s). Consequently, to date, those tokens have not entered the circulating supply of WLD. Starting July 24, 2024, the first of these WLD tokens will begin to unlock and enter the circulating supply of WLD.

This week, TFH announced a change to the unlock schedule for their early contributors’ WLD tokens (original post can be found here), as follows:

Originally, these early contributors’ WLD tokens were intended to be subject to a three-year lock-up schedule. Specifically, no transfers were possible for one year following the launch of the Worldcoin protocol, which took place on July 24, 2023, and then the tokens would unlock daily and linearly over the ensuing two years. Under this original schedule, nearly all of these TFH tokens were to be released from the lock-up by the end of July 2026 (the third anniversary of Worldcoin’s launch).

This week, however, the unlock schedule for approximately 80% of TFH investor and team member WLD tokens is being extended from 3 to 5 years. For these tokens, the unlock schedule’s first year is unchanged (no transfers are possible for one year following the launch of the Worldcoin protocol, which took place on July 24, 2023). And with this change, the affected 80% of TFH tokens will unlock more gradually: daily and linearly over the ensuing four years. Unlocking for nearly all of these tokens now concludes by the end of July 2028—five years after protocol launch. 

Please be aware that any forecasts based on this information would necessarily be approximations, due to factors such as: (1) variations in when individual TFH investors exercised their warrants, (2) TFH team members’ vesting schedules, which have their own timelines, typically tied to a person’s tenure with TFH, and (3) the future allocation of the TFH Reserve of WLD tokens, which stands at around 120M WLD tokens as of today. No further lock-up extensions are planned.

The Worldcoin Foundation decided to share this information and provide context for the wider Worldcoin community, as the more gradual unlock schedule exceeds that of many projects and aligns with the long-term nature of Worldcoin’s mission.  

WLD grants for verified World ID holders are not affected by this change. For more details on the extended lock-up schedule, please see the Worldcoin Whitepaper.

The following figure illustrates how this extension of the TFH unlock schedule is expected to affect the overall circulating supply of WLD.

As the portion of the circulating supply that comes from the Worldcoin Community token pool depends on multiple factors, including network growth and user activity (as that determines how many tokens are claimed by users), it cannot be known in advance. The figure below therefore reflects a simple linear extrapolation based on WLD tokens that have entered circulating supply in June 2024. However, if the network grows faster or slower than assumed here, or if other factors change, then the number of tokens going into circulation would correspondingly be higher or lower. 

Important! Review the Disclaimer at the bottom of this blog post, including the full Disclaimer contained in the Worldcoin Whitepaper.

Starting on July 24, 2024, approximately 2M WLD held by TFH investors and team members will unlock every day. The extended unlock schedule has reduced this number by approximately 40% from the original amount (approximately 3.3M WLD per day). As the figure shows, the extended unlock schedule has the effect of slowing the increase in circulating supply.