What should an ideal digital identity system look like? In this episode of Coordinate, Soubhik sits down with dcbbuilder, Research Engineer at World Foundation, to unpack the architecture of digital identity from first principles. We start with the core mental model: credentials, issuers, roots of trust, attestations, and relying parties. From there, we dive into the properties of a strong identity system, privacy, unlinkability, recovery, revocation, self-hosting, and programmable attestations. In the second half, we go deep into World ID’s design: how the Orb works, how privacy is preserved, why client-side proving matters, how iris uniqueness checks use MPC, and how zero-knowledge proofs enable proof of personhood without revealing identity. We also explore one of the biggest open questions ahead: identity for AI agents, what it means, why it matters, and how human-linked agents may reshape trust online. A great episode for anyone interested in digital identity, zero-knowledge proofs, privacy tech, biometrics, MPC, and the future of the internet. Timestamps 00:00 Introduction 00:13 Why digital identity matters 01:24 The mental model: credentials, roots of trust, and relying parties 04:28 Can roots of trust be decentralized? 06:56 What an ideal digital identity system should look like 07:28 Privacy, unlinkability, and why they matter 13:21 Recovery, revocation, and self-hosted identity 18:38 Programmable attestations, ZK, MPC, and TEEs 36:30 How World ID works: Orbs, privacy, iris codes, and MPC 47:54 World Chain, mini apps, and identity for agents Reference links mentioned in the Podcast: - Future of Digital Identity 1: https://dcbuilder.dev/blog/the-future-of-digital-identity - Future of Digital Identity 2: https://dcbuilder.dev/blog/a-tidal-change-the-future-of-digital-identity-ii - AMPC Privacy/ World ID: https://world.org/blog/engineering/introducing-ampc-another-leap-privacy-performance-world-id - Learn about World Orb: https://world.org/blog/world/orb-faqs
