Sam Altman’s Global Crypto Initiative Debuts in the US Featuring Eye-Scanning Orbs Across Six Cities
Sam Altman’s controversial blockchain project, World, is launching in the U.S. – and stated its intention to roll out 7,500 eye-scanning “orbs” in cities across the country by the end of the year. World’s orbs — chrome, bowling ball-shaped devices that scan a person’s eyeballs for identity confirmation — will initially be introduced in six “key innovation hubs”: Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, and San Francisco. Those who decide to engage with the orb will gain access to the World app and receive an airdrop of World’s WLD token. By the year’s end, the project aims to distribute enough orbs throughout the U.S. to grant access to World’s network for 180 million Americans, over half the population.
Altman and executives from World’s parent company, Tools for Humanity, announced the U.S. expansion during a press conference in San Francisco on Wednesday evening, accompanied by a wide-ranging array of new features and partnerships for the project. The World app will now provide users access to crypto-backed loans via the non-custodial lending protocol Morpho and prediction markets through Kalshi. Later this year, WLD holders will have the opportunity to use their tokens like cash with a new World-linked Visa debit card. The project is also integrating its identity-verification technology into select online dating apps. Starting with Tinder users in Japan, Match Group will pilot the use of World ID to verify the ages of its users.
Altman mentioned that the concept for World predated OpenAI, his generative artificial intelligence (AI) company. “We needed some means for authenticating humans in the age of [artificial general intelligence],” Altman explained during the press conference. “We sought a way to distinguish between content created by humans and that generated by AI, ensuring that humans remain special and central in an increasingly AI-driven internet.”
Altman admitted that his initial ideas for addressing the human verification challenge were “very crazy,” leading to the development of World and its eye-scanning orbs.
World is among the latest crypto projects to announce a U.S. expansion. Since January, the regulatory landscape has become more favorable for crypto initiatives. The company disclosed plans to build a factory in Richardson, Texas, a suburb of Dallas, to facilitate the production of the orbs required for its impending U.S. expansion. Following the initial rollout, additional major cities, including Seattle, Orlando, San Diego, and Las Vegas, will receive the second wave of orbs.
“They will truly be ubiquitous,” noted Alex Blania, co-founder of Tools for Humanity. “They will be located in gas stations, convenience stores, and users will be able to verify their identity within 10 minutes, wherever they are.”
