Sam Altman, the fellow behind OpenAI, has a crypto project called World. It’s making a big move into the United States. Get this: they plan to put 7,500 of their eye-scanning “orbs” all over the country by the end of the year.
- World plans to deploy thousands of eye-scanning orbs across the U.S. to verify users’ identities. This is a key part of their expansion strategy.
- The World app will offer crypto loans and prediction markets, expanding its functionality beyond identity verification. Users will also be able to spend their WLD tokens using a Visa debit card.
- The project’s goal is to ensure human verification in an AI-dominated world, with the orbs serving as a unique method. The project is also expanding into online dating.
These orbs, they look like shiny bowling balls. You peer into one, and it scans your eyeball. That’s how it knows you are you. It’s a way to prove you are a real human, not some computer program. Kind of wild, isn’t it?
At first, you will find these orbs in six cities. They call them “innovation hubs.” Think Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, and San Francisco. If you decide to look into the orb, you get access to the World app. And you get some of their WLD tokens dropped into your account. Free money, sort of, for scanning your eye.
The goal is ambitious. By the end of this year, they want enough orbs out there so 180 million Americans could sign up. That’s more than half the country. Imagine that many eyeballs looking into these things.
Altman and the folks from World’s parent company, Tools for Humanity, talked about all this recently in San Francisco. They also rolled out a bunch of new things for the project. It wasn’t just about the orbs showing up.
Now, the World app will let users get crypto loans. This is through a system called Morpho, which handles lending without holding your money for you (non-custodial lending). You can also use prediction markets through a service called Kalshi. This is where people bet on the outcome of future events, but using crypto.
Later this year, something else is coming. If you hold WLD tokens, you will be able to spend them like regular cash. They are launching a Visa debit card linked to World. Swipe the card, spend your tokens. Simple enough, right?
They are even getting into online dating. Starting in Japan, World ID will be used to check ages on some dating apps. Match Group, a big company that owns apps like Tinder, is trying this out. So, maybe no more guessing if someone is really the age they say they are online. Your eyeball confirms it.
Altman said the idea for World came to him even before he started OpenAI. That’s the company that makes the smart AI stuff everyone talks about.
He talked about needing a way to know who is human in a world where AI is getting really good. He said it’s hard to tell what content online is made by a person and what is made by AI. He wanted to make sure humans stayed important and special when the internet is going to be full of AI-made things.
Altman admitted his first ideas for solving this human verification problem were “very crazy.” He said World and the eye-scanning orbs are “only a little” crazy. That makes you wonder what the *really* crazy ideas were.
World is just one more crypto project setting up shop in the US lately. Things have gotten a bit easier for crypto companies here since President Donald Trump took office in January. The rules feel a little less tight, or at least, that’s how some see it.
To get all these orbs built, the company announced they are building a factory. It will be in Richardson, Texas. That’s a town near Dallas. This factory will churn out the orbs needed for this big US push.
After the first group of cities gets their orbs, a second wave is planned. Cities like Seattle, Orlando, San Diego, and Las Vegas are next up. They are really spreading out.
Alex Blania, one of the guys who started Tools for Humanity, said the orbs will be “everywhere.” He meant it. He talked about them being in gas stations and convenience stores. The idea is you should be able to find one and verify yourself in about ten minutes, no matter where you are.
So, the future might involve scanning your eye at the corner store to prove you are human. It’s a strange new world, this crypto and AI one. But it keeps things interesting, doesn’t it?