Sam Altman’s Worldcoin becomes World and shows new iris-scanning Orb to prove your humanity

Worldcoin, the Sam Altman co-founded “proof of personhood” project that scans people’s eyeballs, announced on Thursday that it dropped the “coin” from its name and is now just “World.” The startup behind the World project, Tools for Humanity, also unveiled its next generation of iris-scanning “Orbs” and other tools at a live event in San Francisco.

Co-founder and CEO of Tools for Humanity, Alex Blania, said the project’s old name “just doesn’t work anymore,” potentially signaling the startup is looking to expand its identity beyond its original currency mission. (Eye-scanning initially was seen as a way to get access to Worldcoins, though the founders say this never happened.)

OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, spends a good chunk of his time working on World, Blania told TechCrunch during a press conference, but said the two startups’ missions are independent from each other. However, Blania didn’t rule out that World’s crytocurrency could be incorporated into ChatGPT one day.


“Well, he’s a co-founder and he’s been so from the beginning. So, we talk a couple times a week. He’s involved in all the decisions,” Blania told TechCrunch.

“Of course, he’s focused on OpenAI,” Blania continued. “How tied is World’s success to OpenAI? I think actually not at all. I think these are two very separate missions, and I think AI is heading where it’s heading, and we think what we built here is very important infrastructure for the world, and that will not change.”

https://techcrunch.com/2024/10/17/sam-altmans-worldcoin-becomes-world-and-shows-new-iris-scanning-orb-to-prove-your-humanity/