World Launches in US, Partners with Visa, Match Group for Identity Verification

Sam Altman’s digital identity network, World, has officially launched in the United States. The project, initially known as Worldcoin, is designed to verify human users through biometric data scanning, addressing concerns about bots and deepfakes in the AI era. The launch took place in six cities: Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, and San Francisco. Residents in these areas can now access World’s identity verification technology and receive payments in its native token, Worldcoin (WLD).

The core device of World’s system is the Orb, a spherical scanner that takes approximately 30 seconds to read a person’s face and another 20 seconds to read their iris. Upon completion of the scan, users receive a unique IrisCode number, confirming their humanity and preventing duplicate registrations. Verified users are rewarded with WLD tokens and a World ID, which can be used as a single sign-in option for various platforms such as Minecraft, Reddit, Telegram, Shopify, and Discord.

Sam Altman, the co-founder of World, emphasized the project’s mission to maintain the uniqueness of human identity in an increasingly AI-driven digital landscape. He highlighted the technology’s role in defending against the changing digital environment during a keynote speech at the company’s San Francisco event on April 30.

In conjunction with its U.S. launch, World announced several strategic partnerships aimed at integrating the World ID into daily life. Visa will introduce a World Visa card by late 2025, exclusively available to users who have undergone an Orb scan. This card will facilitate payments using WLD tokens and other cryptocurrencies, allowing verified users to spend their crypto seamlessly. Additionally, Match Group will test World ID integration on its platforms, starting with Tinder in Japan, to help users identify legitimate daters and avoid bots or scammers.

World is also collaborating with Kalshi, a regulated prediction market platform, and Morpho, a decentralized lending protocol. These partnerships will enable users to access services such as crypto-backed loans and participation in prediction markets directly within the World app, expanding its functionality beyond identity verification.

Despite World’s assurances that personal information will be kept secure, the project has faced global criticism over its biometric data collection practices. The company claims that iris data is used solely for verification purposes and is not centrally retained. Instead, sensitive data is fragmented and encrypted across multiple institutions to minimize the risk of breaches. However, regulatory concerns persist, with Germany requesting the deletion of biometric data due to GDPR infringement, and Kenyan authorities raiding World’s warehouses in 2023. Hong Kong regulators have also instructed the company to halt data collection, and Brazil has imposed restrictions despite World’s compliance efforts.

Since rebranding from Worldcoin in 2024, World has grown to 26 million users globally, with 12 million verified through Orb scans. The project plans to deploy 7,500 Orbs across the U.S. by the end of 2025 and open an assembly line in Richardson, Texas. Co-founder Alex Blania described the surge in identity verification as a “wake-up moment for proof of personhood” amidst the rise of AI-generated content. Backed by prominent investors such as Andreessen Horowitz, Coinbase, and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, World aims to reach one billion users while balancing innovation and privacy to develop a global blockchain-based identity system.