After years of regulatory hesitation and global controversy, World—the eyeball-scanning crypto project co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman—has finally made its official American debut.
The company announced Wednesday that its distinctive chrome “orbs” are now operational in six major US innovation hubs: Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, and San Francisco.
This landmark expansion marks a significant shift in World’s approach to the American market, as the company had previously barred U.S. residents from receiving its WLD crypto tokens due to regulatory concerns.
Visionary Or Dystopian?
“The United States of America stands at the forefront of artificial intelligence innovation. Now, it’s time for the world’s AI hub to embrace the essential counterpart: proof of human,” World declared in its announcement, boldly titled “World launches in the USA, at last.” This triumphant tone underscores the company’s long-awaited entry into what many consider the global epicenter of technological innovation.
The timing of this expansion appears strategically aligned with the changing political landscape under the Trump administration, which has fostered a more crypto-friendly regulatory environment. This shift has enabled World to overcome previous hesitations about operating in the US market and accelerate its ambitious deployment plans.
World’s vision extends far beyond its initial six-city launch. The company has announced plans to deploy a staggering 7,500 eye-scanning orbs across the country by year’s end, with the goal of making its network accessible to approximately 180 million Americans—more than half the nation’s population. To facilitate this massive scale-up, World is establishing an orb manufacturing facility in Richardson, Texas, a suburb of Dallas.
According to Alex Blania, co-founder of Tools for Humanity (World’s parent company), these distinctive devices will soon become ubiquitous features of the American landscape: “They will really be everywhere. They will be in gas stations, convenience stores, and you will be able to verify within 10 minutes wherever you are.”
Beyond Biometric Scanning
World’s U.S. launch comes packaged with an ambitious array of new features and strategic partnerships designed to create a comprehensive digital identity ecosystem.
The World app will now offer users access to crypto-backed loans through the non-custodial lending protocol Morpho, as well as prediction markets via Kalshi. Later this year, WLD token holders will gain the ability to spend their crypto assets like traditional currency through a new World-linked Visa debit card.
Perhaps most intriguingly, World is expanding beyond financial services into online dating. Through a partnership with Match Group, World’s identity verification technology will be integrated into dating platforms, beginning with age verification for Tinder users in Japan.
During Wednesday’s press conference in San Francisco, Altman explained that the concept for World actually predated his work at OpenAI. “We needed some sort of way for authenticating humans in the age of [artificial general intelligence],” Altman stated.
“We needed a way that we could know what content was made by humans, [and what was made] by AI. We wanted a way to make sure that humans stayed special and central in a world where the internet was going to have lots of AI-driven content.”
