World Foundation has released ProveKit, an open-source zero-knowledge proving toolkit designed to generate privacy-preserving proofs locally on phones, browsers and other constrained devices.
The software is already integrated into World ID, where it supports proofs based on credentials stored on a user’s device. A person can use those credentials to prove an attribute such as minimum age, nationality or ownership of a valid identity document without disclosing the underlying personal data.
World says private inputs remain on the device and the verifier receives only the claim being proved. Local processing also allows the toolkit to work offline and avoids sending passport or other credential data to an external proving service.
ProveKit accepts claims written in Noir, a programming language developed by Aztec, and converts them through several intermediate formats before applying the WHIR hash-based commitment scheme. World says the design does not require a trusted setup or rely on elliptic-curve or lattice assumptions.
The company describes the first version as production-ready and says Least Authority completed an independent audit. The code is available on GitHub, with documentation and benchmarks published through the ProveKit website.
Performance testing cited by World found that a typical phone could complete a proof in a few seconds, while the slowest handset tested finished in less than 30 seconds. The design target limits memory use to less than one gigabyte and keeps proof size below one megabyte.
Because ProveKit does not require a per-circuit trusted setup, users do not need to download the large proving keys associated with some other zero-knowledge systems. World presents that reduction in bandwidth and memory requirements as central to supporting lower-cost phones.
The toolkit supports passport-based World ID credentials, which let users store information from NFC-enabled identity documents locally and prove selected facts without presenting the full document.
Its release also adds to a wider push toward zero-knowledge identity tooling that developers can integrate into compliance and authentication workflows.
World plans to move the next ProveKit version from Noir’s BN254 field to Goldilocks to reduce proof size, processing time and memory use. A planned Groth16 backend will support applications that prioritize efficient on-chain verification.
Sources: World Foundation, ProveKit
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By the ID Tech Editorial Team
