Sam Altman's Eye-Scanning Crypto Project Launches in the U.S.

By Kimberley KaoSam Altman's project that aims to scan the irises of every single person on Earth in exchange for cryptocurrency has made its debut in the U.S., even as concerns around biometric data collection and processing remain.The U.S. rollout was made at an event late Wednesday in San Francisco, where the digital initiative called World also announced the planned launch of a payments card with Visa and a partnership with online-dating service Match Group, beginning with its Tinder users in Japan."As AI advances, it's increasingly important to distinguish between humans and bots online," World said on its website.Altman, OpenAI's chief executive, co-founded the venture in 2019 as an "anonymous proof-of-human" system for people to verify their identity and prevent AI bots from pretending to be humans.World, formerly known as Worldcoin, works as an open-source protocol, according to its website. Users download a wallet app that supports the creation of a digital identity known as World ID.To get their identity verified, users visit a physical imaging device called the Orb that uses sensors "to verify humanness and uniqueness."As of March, World has Orb-verified 11 million people worldwide.The World Card with Visa, which it aims to launch in the U.S. by this year, will be connected directly to users' World App wallet, allowing them to spend the digital assets anywhere Visa is accepted worldwide, it said.The U.S. launch comes amid the Trump administration's support for the digital asset sector. The president has said he aims to make the country the "crypto capital of the world."The project was initially rolled out to countries outside the U.S. in 2023 during the Biden administration.Altman's efforts have come under much scrutiny by authorities worldwide over concerns about how it handles user data. World has been raided in Hong Kong, blocked in Spain, fined in Argentina and criminally investigated in Kenya.More than a dozen jurisdictions have either suspended World's operations or looked into its data processing. The project says its technology is completely private.Write to Kimberley Kao at [email protected]