Although the biometric scanning Orb and the World network have their roots in crypto tokens, “crypto” was not a frequently mentioned word during the event. Instead, Altman and Blania emphasized World's blockchain service, digital asset management and virtual communications tools.
Blania claimed during the press conference that World hopes to build the 'largest financial network' in the world in the future.
In a separate interview with WIRED, Blania said the couple was inspired by the rise of PayPal during regular Sunday gatherings at Atlman's home. Similar to how Peter Thiel, Max Levchin and others once pioneered digital payments and fundamentally changed online commerce – becoming billionaires themselves in the process – the World team saw itself building a similar network for tokens on a distributed network.
The World app is free for everyone to use for the time being. It's also free to scan your eyeballs. Tools for Humanity itself is backed by venture capital, and the foundation is aiming for scale, scale, scale in its land grab for the modern market for identity verification and your personal biometrics. Ultimately, it can make money through processing fees, Blania said.
Most of Tools for Humanity's expansion plans are in locations outside the US for now, due to murky regulations surrounding crypto-states, the organization's spokesperson told me.
If you use the Orb and compatible app in the US, your iris will be scanned and stored, but no crypto token will be generated for you.
Two and a half years ago, the Worldcoin project came under scrutiny for allegedly deceptive and exploitative practices in recruiting individuals to scan their irises. At the time, Blania attributed this haphazard behavior to the fact that the organization was still in the 'start-up phase'. In an interview with WIRED, Blania said the company is doing “a thousand things” to ensure a stricter consent process. This includes staffing an “operations team” in each market where World will operate. He said the World app will include “explanations” of how the product works.
“And again, there's no data stored in a central location or anything like that,” Blania said.
In 2023, the service was also investigated by governments in Germany, Brazil, India, South Korea and Kenya over concerns about how biometric data was stored and used. Kenya has completely suspended registration for Worldcoin. South Korea has fined the company. Worldcoin has suspended its own service in India, Brazil and France.
Blania said he believes World will relaunch in Kenya “soon.”
When asked at the press conference about the emphasis on Latin America as a market for expansion, for example through its orbs-on-delivery partnership with Rappi, Blania challenged the idea that World was prioritizing Latin America over other locations.
“It's just that we have limited resources, and there is a natural order,” Blania said. “We are similarly focused on Asia and other places. Argentina, for example, is a fast-growing market for us and we are enthusiastic about that.”
“But the project is literally called World,” he added.
After the keynote, Altman ran into the press room to wave and apologize for not being able to stay, then slipped away like a head of state.
