Worldcoin Launches Digital Wallet for Identity and Finance

Worldcoin has launched a digital wallet designed to expand the availability of digital identity and global finance.

The new World App is designed for the Worldcoin ecosystem and can be used to authenticate with World ID, get Worldcoin tokens and send digital money anywhere, Worldcoin said in a Monday (May 8) blog post.

“World App is a different kind of wallet,” Worldcoin said in the post. “It doesn’t support every token or functionality crypto has to offer, and it doesn’t expose every possible configuration. Instead, it is designed by TFH [Tools for Humanity] to focus on a handful of key functionalities for Worldcoin and Ethereum to keep things simple and familiar so anyone can use them.”

The wallet enables the use of World ID to sign into websites, mobile apps and crypto dapps, and allows people in eligible countries to claim Worldcoin Grants, according to the blog post.

It also lets users save and send digital money, and helps them learn about and trade select tokens, the post said.

“Fulfilling Worldcoin’s mission of giving everyone access to the global economy will take many teams innovating across a variety of wallets for diverse use cases and users,” Worldcoin said in the post. “We are excited for the role World App is playing in this journey by providing a different take on simple—yet powerful—tools uniquely enabled by decentralized technologies to solve privacy preserving identity including Proof-of-Personhood, access to internet-native financial services, equitable global distribution of digital currencies, governance of public goods, and ultimately a path to AI [artificial intelligence]-funded UBI [universal basic income].”

It was reported in March 2022 that Worldcoin, a startup founded by Sam Altman, co-founder and CEO of ChatGPT creator OpenAI, aims to give cryptocurrency to every living person through scanning their irises to better distribute digital money.

The idea is to spread the reach of cryptocurrency, and financial services as a whole, to a wide range of users by giving users a free share of Worldcoin cryptocurrency.

The firm attracted $25 million in funding in October 2021 from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Coinbase and LinkedIn Co-founder Reid Hoffman.