World, the project tied to OpenAI boss Sam Altman, is now launching in the United States. This is the one that wants to check if you’re actually a person online. You know, not a bot pretending to be one.
- World is launching in the US to verify users’ identities online, aiming to distinguish real people from bots. They use eye scans to confirm a user’s humanness.
- The project plans to integrate its verification system into various aspects of life, including payments, dating apps, and gaming. This is done to ensure safety and authenticity.
- World’s goal is to reach 1 billion users by expanding its Orb technology and partnering with companies like Razer. They aim to be present wherever humans are online.
Americans can get WLD tokens just for proving they are, well, human. It starts in six cities. Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, and San Francisco are on the list. It feels like a big step for them.
See, the internet is getting crowded with AI stuff. Sometimes it’s hard to tell who’s real. World thinks figuring out who is human is super important right now. It’s not the only group doing this, but Altman being involved makes it pretty famous.
They call themselves “the real human network.” They say about 26 million people use their app. Around 12 million of those are counted as “unique humans.” That’s a lot of folks looking to prove they aren’t robots.
Getting into the US is a big deal. The country seems more open to crypto companies lately. That helps projects like World get off the ground here.
Now, this project has caused some talk before. When it launched in other places, some groups worried about data privacy. Giving away tokens for signing up raised some eyebrows. It’s the eye-scanning part that gets people thinking.
They use these shiny silver Orbs to check if you’re human. It scans your eyeball. World says it uses this data to confirm you’re a person but doesn’t keep the scan itself. They say this avoids privacy problems.
But still, giving your eye scan data to a company? It’s a bit sci-fi, isn’t it? Like something out of a movie. You just hope they’re as careful as they say they are.
World has some other things planned too. They are getting into the payment game. They want to launch a Visa card later this year in the US. This card would link right to your World App wallet.
Imagine using your WLD tokens or other digital money to buy groceries or coffee. Anywhere Visa works, this card should work. The cool part is, stores get regular money, not crypto. So they don’t need to understand any of it. You get to use your digital stuff easily.
They are also trying something with online dating. Yes, dating. They teamed up with Match Group. That’s the company behind apps like Tinder and Hinge. The idea is to help people know if the profile they see belongs to a real person.
Meeting people online should feel safe. World wants to give dating app users a way to check if profiles are real humans looking for real connections. It starts with a test program for Tinder users over in Japan. It makes sense, I guess. Who wants to fall for a bot?
And there’s more. World App users can now jump into prediction markets. They added something called the Kalshi Mini App right inside the World App. You can make bets on future events directly from there.
It’s interesting how they are trying to connect this human verification thing to different parts of life. Payments, dating, even predicting the future. It’s all tied back to proving you’re not a computer program.
World launched back in 2023. The main company building it is called Tools for Humanity. Sam Altman is one of the guys who started that company, along with Alex Blania.
They have big plans for growth. They want to get to 1 billion users eventually. To do that, they plan to use a smaller version of the Orb, a mini-Orb. Makes sense; those big silver ones probably aren’t easy to move around.
They are even working with the gaming company Razer. This is so gamers can know if they are playing against a real person or a bot online. World plans to offer its human checks at Razer stores. It seems they want to be everywhere humans are online.
So, World is here in the US. Bringing tokens, eye scans, and plans for cards and dating app checks. It’s a project trying to solve a problem that feels more real every day: how do we know who is who online?
It’s a bold move, asking people to verify their humanness with an Orb. But maybe that’s what it takes in a world where bots are getting pretty good at pretending. We’ll see how it goes.
It’s a strange new world out there. And World is trying to put a stamp on who gets to be in it. The humans, that is.
