Sam Altman's iris-scanning ID project launches in US
What's the story
Sam Altman's eye-scanning identity verification project, World, has officially started its operations in the US.
The company, co-founded by Altman in 2019 as Worldcoin, aims to offer a global identity verification system using iris scans and blockchain technology to fight against fraud and bots.
The innovative venture is now available at six retail locations across the country: Austin, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Nashville, Miami, and San Francisco.
The launch is being handled by Tools for Humanity, the Altman-founded start-up behind World.
Procedure
The iris scanning process explained
The identity verification process uses a device called Orb, which scans a person's face and iris in roughly 30 seconds.
The scan produces a unique "IrisCode" that verifies the person's humanity and confirms their first-time registration.
Once verified, participants are rewarded with blockchain-based IDs and 16 WLD tokens.
Also, the World ID can then be used for sign-ins on integrated platforms like Minecraft, Reddit, Telegram, Shopify, and Discord.
Collaborations
Strategic partnerships and future plans
World recently announced two major partnerships at a San Francisco event, "At Last."
Visa will launch a "World Visa card" this summer, but only for those who have undergone iris scanning by World. The debit card would convert WLD into fiat currency at the time of the transaction.
Meanwhile, Match Group, the online dating giant, will test World ID and some age verification tools with Tinder in Japan as part of a pilot program.
Vision
World ID: The future of online verification
The ultimate aim of Tools for Humanity is to make World ID the primary way to verify people online.
The effort seeks to tackle the societal consequences of OpenAI, Altman's other venture.
As AI progresses, a system such as World ID could prove critical in differentiating between AI-generated and human-created content.
Altman imagines World could be a form of universal basic income for those whose jobs AI has taken over.
Data debate
Concerns over data storage and security
World has been criticized for its data storage practices. The project keeps some personal data to avoid frauds like double-scanning or system manipulation.
However, investors and team members claim this data is decentralized and can't be reverse-engineered, unlike regular anonymized data which can be de-anonymized.
Adrian Ludwig, Chief Information Security Officer at Tools for Humanity (a key contributor to World), clarified that individual stored data is split among different parties for security reasons.
Financials
Funding, valuation, and user base
Since its inception, Tools for Humanity has raised over $140 million from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Coinbase, and billionaire Reid Hoffman. This gives the firm a valuation of $1 billion as of 2021.
Currently, 26 million people are on the World network across Europe, South America, and the Asia-Pacific region with 12 million verified users. The company's goal is to scale up to one billion people worldwide.