So you want to invest in cryptocurrency? You might need to prove you're a human first.
That's the requirement at World, formerly known as WorldCoin. The project, backed by OpenAI's Sam Altman, has launched in Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville and San Francisco to test digital assets in the age of AI.
World uses devices called "orbs" to verify a user's identity by scanning their face and eyes. They get a Worldcoin (WLD) crypto token in return.
Crypto users aren't the only ones who might be required to prove they're humans. Dating apps are also interested in testing World's technology, media outlets report.
World's orbs launched outside the U.S. in 2023 as “a way to make sure humans remained central and special in a world where the internet had a lot of AI-driven content," the Financial Times quoted Altman as saying.
He told the publication that while the eye-scanning orbs have “a clear ick factor," the industry had to "earn people's trust."
World hasn't been embraced worldwide, though. Spain blocked it last year, raising concerns it was collecting personal information about minors, media outlets reported. The company also faced pushback from Portugal, Hong Kong, South Korea and France.
Regulatory concerns in the Biden era kept World from entering the U.S., Fortune reported. The administration took a more aggressive stance on crypto as the industry collapsed amid high-profile cases of fraud. Former FTX boss Sam Bankman-Fried, sentenced to 25 years in prison last year for defrauding customers on his crypto exchange, is one of the investors in the developer behind World.
World is one of several companies that have entered the U.S. in the crypto-friendly Trump administration, where agencies dedicated to investigating crypto businesses and enforcing rules have been disbanded or defanged and cases against top firms including Coinbase, Ripple and others have been dropped.
Trump, who accepted millions of dollars from crypto donors during his 2024 campaign, has since hawked meme coins featuring him and wife Melania, started a crypto business with his sons, proposed a U.S. "strategic crypto reserve," issued an executive order supporting crypto, created a task force to set up a regulatory framework and appointed a crypto advocate as head of the regulatory agency that oversees the industry.
Trump had a different view of crypto in his first term. "I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air," he posted in 2019. "Unregulated Crypto Assets can facilitate unlawful behavior, including drug trade and other illegal activity."
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