Past experiments

Before today’s test elections, the World Republic tried other things. Some were about democracy itself: open letters and polls, parties that people joined as members, and a first election of its own. Others were uses of WDD: a basic income, a savings account, rewards for inviting others, and an earlier rule for party subsidies. None of them runs today, though some may be started again later. Much of the older WDD activity on World Chain and Base Chain comes from these experiments. This page records what each one was, what it left onchain, and how it stopped.

Where they ran

• The World Republic mini app, which ran inside World App, on World Chain, from February 2025.
• A standalone web app at app.worldrepublic.org, from July 2025, on Base Chain and, from August 2025, on World Chain too. It is still online, without the parts for these experiments.
• worldrepublic.org, the app these docs cover, which has run test elections since February 2026.

What shows up onchain

The mini app ran most of its experiments on contracts, so its registrations, joins, votes, deposits and claims are onchain. worldrepublic.org records rewards in its own ledger, not on a blockchain, and the standalone app kept a ledger of its own. A reward recorded this way shows up onchain only when someone withdraws it. The standalone app sends its withdrawals directly from treasury addresses of its own. Since August 13, 2026, withdrawals from worldrepublic.org are sent by two payout contracts, one on each chain. Before that, they were sent directly from a treasury address.

Open letters and polls

What it was. The mini app’s first democratic features, from February 2025. Open letters let people sign public statements addressed to decision makers, among them the Center for AI Safety’s statement on AI risk and Future of Life Institute letters on nuclear weapons and lethal autonomous weapons. Polls asked quick questions on current topics: daily at first, then weekly from April 2025. Neither paid WDD, and the app called them a showcase. Onchain. Nothing from the World Republic. Signing and voting happened in vote.one, a separate app inside World App, which checked that each person was Orb-verified and recorded no names. How it stopped. The last new poll was posted in June 2025. The letters stayed listed in the mini app until September 2026.

Party membership

What it was. From April 2025, anyone could register a party in the mini app and anyone could join one, one party per address. A party appeared once it was approved. Each week, a pool of WDD went to the leaders of the largest parties, based on their membership: 100,000 WDD a week at first and 250,000 WDD from May 2025, alongside a share, paid in WLD, of the developer rewards the app received from World. In June 2025, the mini app held its own election. Orb-verified users chose among 95 parties, one vote each, and the last weekly payment, on June 24, 2025, followed the votes. This election is separate from the test elections that worldrepublic.org has numbered since February 2026. From November 2025, the standalone app had a party registry of its own, where people could also found, join and lead parties. It paid nothing. Onchain. Registering, joining, leaving and approving parties are calls to the party registry. Joining did not require verification, and the registry counted Orb-verified members separately. Votes are calls to the election contract, which accepted only Orb-verified addresses. The weekly payments were sent as ordinary transfers, not through a contract. The standalone app’s registry was kept in its own records and left nothing onchain. How it stopped. The mini app’s weekly payments ended with the June 2025 round. In February 2026, both apps pointed party leaders to worldrepublic.org, which has its own party registry: parties there stand in test elections and earn subsidies by seats, and they have no members. In March 2026, both apps removed their party lists. The mini app’s registry contract still holds the parties registered there.

Basic income

What it was. A small amount of WDD that people could claim every day. It tested one answer to a question about economic security in the AI era: if AI raises what the world produces, who shares in it? It ran in all three apps:

• In the mini app, every user could claim basic income, verified or not, and Basic Income Plus paid a larger amount to users verified with an Orb. At their height, in spring 2025, they paid 1 WDD and 10 WDD a day.
• On the standalone app, from July 2025 to April 2026, basic income built up 1 WDD a day, claimed one day at a time. From late July 2025, an account that had not verified, with a facial scan or later an identity document, could hold no more than 10 WDD.
• On worldrepublic.org, from March to June 2026, a citizen could claim 1 WDD a day, one day at a time.

Onchain. The mini app’s version ran on two contracts on World Chain. Joining recorded one unit of a placeholder token for the joining address, so joins appear as stakes, and claims as reward claims. The Basic Income Fund accepted any address. Basic Income Plus accepted only addresses that World’s Address Book contract lists as Orb-verified. The other two versions were recorded in their apps’ own ledgers. How it stopped. The daily amounts were cut in steps from May 2025, and since June 9, 2026, both contracts pay an amount that rounds to nothing. Neither contract was closed, and the WDD they never paid out is still in them. The standalone app ended its basic income in April 2026, and worldrepublic.org on June 9, 2026.

Savings account

What it was. An account that paid interest on deposited WDD, at about 69% a year. Interest built up every second until the saver collected it. The same account ran in several places: as contracts, used by the mini app, the standalone app and, from April to August 2026, worldrepublic.org; and in the standalone app’s and worldrepublic.org’s own ledgers. Onchain. Deposits, withdrawals and collections are calls to these contracts. Collected interest was sent from a separate funding address, not from the contract. How it stopped. worldrepublic.org closed its savings in August 2026, and paid the savers in its own ledger their deposits and all their interest. On September 15, 2026, the savings contracts stopped paying interest:

• World Chain. The rate was set to zero. Interest the contract had already recorded for a saver, which it does each time they deposit, withdraw or collect, can still be collected. Interest built up since then went to zero with the rate.
• Base Chain. The second contract’s rate was set to zero. The first contract has no owner, so its rate could not be changed, and it still shows interest building up. Neither can draw the WDD to pay interest any more.

Deposits were not touched. In the weeks after September 15, savers withdrew most of them. The standalone app’s own savings stopped paying interest at the same time.

Invitation rewards

What it was. Rewards for bringing others in, in all three apps:

• In the mini app, from March to August 2025, a user received 50 WDD for each invited friend who joined Basic Income Plus, which was open only to Orb-verified users. From April to June 2025, a friend could also qualify with a World ID passport.
• On the standalone app, from July to December 2025, a user received 10 WDD for each invited friend who switched on basic income and verified.
• On worldrepublic.org, a referral bonus, from March to May 2026, paid a small amount when someone a citizen had invited verified. The Ambassador Program, from Test election 1 to Test election 32, paid the citizen who had invited a party’s leader an extra 10% of every subsidy that party won, on top of the subsidy.

Onchain. The mini app’s rewards were paid by two contracts on World Chain. The standalone app’s and worldrepublic.org’s were recorded in their own ledgers, so they show up onchain only as withdrawals. How it stopped. The mini app’s last referral rewards were paid in June and August 2025, and the standalone app’s in December 2025. The referral bonus on worldrepublic.org ended in May 2026. The Ambassador Program ended after Test election 32. Ambassador rewards already awarded keep vesting, on the same schedule as a party subsidy.

Subsidies by share of the vote

From Test election 1 to Test election 32, each party with a vote took a share of the election’s pool in proportion to its votes, with no threshold. From Test election 33, subsidies follow seats, and test elections sets out why. Subsidies are recorded in the app’s own ledger, so they show up onchain only as withdrawals. Awards made under the old rule keep vesting.