World Co-Founder Sam Altman
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WorldCoin, Sam Altman's cryptocurrency project that scans people's irises in exchange for digital token allocations, will be rebranded as “World” as it seeks to define its purpose and expand its scope, the company announced Thursday. did.
The project was initially launched with the aim of providing a universal basic income, using a basketball-sized biometric reader called Orb to collect iris data in return for a portion of the company's cryptocurrency WLD. A one-time payment was made. But since the AI craze started with ChatGPT, developed by Altman's other company, OpenAI, Tools For Humanity, the company that manages the World project, has been leaning hard into human identity verification. In a future where AI is everywhere, we need systems. To prove that humans are humans and not bots.
When people have their eyes scanned by the orb, they are issued a “World ID” that proves their “identity” within the World's system. The idea is that people can be sure they're not a bot without giving up any other identifying information.
“The name WorldCoin doesn’t work anymore,” CEO Alex Branier said on stage at an event in San Francisco. Meanwhile, Altman touted the newly rebranded World as an infrastructure layer for AI, helping “humans and agents navigate resources back and forth” and communicate with each other.
As first reported, the name change highlights the challenges the company faced in trying to define itself and its business. forbes last year. “I don't think we've quite decided that yet, and that's OK. It's difficult and it's really new,” Altman said at a company-wide summit in May 2022, according to audio obtained. , forbes. “We decide internally the direction we want to go in, and I think there are still multiple opinions on it, but if it gets announced and it really resonates with people, things will really ignite. You can.”
A former Tools For Humanity employee said: forbes Last year: “Without a doubt, the company's new DNA is its very identity. They're no longer saying they're a cryptocurrency company.” Removing the word “coin” from the name is a shameful virtualization. It also comes at a time when the cryptocurrency market is losing some of its luster following the collapse of currency exchange FTX.
The company made several other announcements at the event, including a new version of the orb with a white coating instead of the original metallic chrome. World also announced that people will be able to use the company's app to scan their eyes on demand, and when they make a reservation, an orb will arrive “just like a delivered pizza,” said Rich, the company's chief device officer. Mr. Healy said. World also announced that it will install OrbScan stations in retail stores, including coffee shops and convenience stores, around the world starting Thursday. The company said it has already launched a “premium verification experience” in Mexico City and Buenos Aires, where staff can answer questions and perform eye scans in boutique spaces.
World has been mired in controversy even before its release. Privacy experts were concerned that exchanging biometric data for cryptocurrencies could be misused. In 2022, BuzzFeed News reported that the company was testing Orb in countries in the Global South, where low-income users exchanged iris readings for shares of a cryptocurrency that took years to issue. He was reported to be angry. Orb's operators, the scanning contractors who typically come from low-income backgrounds, are also exposed to harassment and arrest from local authorities, while facing unpaid payments and changing performance targets from World. I felt that there was.
Since World's inception in 2019, Altman's star has risen astronomically. He has become one of the most powerful figures in the technology world thanks to the success of OpenAI and ChatGPT. But Tools For Humanity is only a small player in the Altman empire so far. Earlier this month, OpenAI announced it had raised $6.6 billion, its largest venture capital funding round in history. In comparison, Tools for Humanity raised $150 million last year (with a total of $240 million and a $2.47 billion valuation to date, according to Pitchbook), though still impressive. , falls short of its sister company's impressive numbers.
At the event, Altman reiterated comments he made to employees at a private summit in 2022, emphasizing the importance of expanding the platform and building a larger network. “One of the jokes I sometimes use is when in doubt, scale up,” he said Thursday. “We want to know what happens when we do this at scale.”
