Sam Altman Brings Iris-Scanning Company World to US

Sam Altman’s digital identity effort World made its official U.S. launch.

As the Financial Times (FT) reported late Wednesday (April 30), the debut of this project — which involves eyeball scanning technology and a digital token — is happening as the U.S. government is taking a pro-cryptocurrency stance.

World has initially launched its product outside of the U.S., in part because the Biden administration had cracked down on the crypto sector. Since then, President Donald Trump has campaigned to make the U.S. the “crypto capital of the planet.”

According to the FT, Altman — also CEO of OpenAI — announced the U.S. launch at an event Wednesday in San Francisco, telling the audience: “I’m a very proud American, I think America should lead innovation, not fight it off.”

Altman added that the company’s tech was “a way to make sure humans remained central and special in a world where the internet had a lot of AI-driven content.”

“There were very good reasons why we focused on making sure that the product worked in the entire world before coming to the United States. Some of them are related to regulatory changes,” said Adrian Ludwig, chief architect at Tools for Humanity, which developed World.

The company’s founders contend that a dependable way to distinguish humans from computers is critical as artificial intelligence (AI) evolves.

World manufactures eyeball-scanning “orbs” that generate unique IDs, letting users access the group’s Worldcoin token. The FT says the company hopes to build up to 10,000 orbs for the American market in the next 12 months.

The company is also reportedly at work on a super app that Altman and CEO Alex Blania say could someday compete with X, assuming that company develops its own super app plans.

Weeks later, reports emerged that World was in talks with Visa to add on-chain card features to the group’s self-custody crypto wallet.

The company has also faced regulatory scrutiny in several countries due to privacy concerns. Spain blocked World last year, saying there were concerns that the company was collecting personal data of minors. World has also faced bans, fines or investigations in France, Portugal, Hong Kong and Kenya.

In spite of these worries, research by PYMNTS Intelligence has found that a large share of U.S. consumers have embraced biometric authentication tools, with more than half of consumers who shop online employing biometric authentication to verify purchases.