Worldcoin, the Sam Altman-backed digital id initiative, introduced a significant rebrand as World and unveiled bold plans to develop its person base to 1 billion folks throughout a keynote deal with on Oct. 17.
The keynote, led by co-founders Altman and Alex Blania, marked a major shift within the challenge’s trajectory after it introduced a sequence of key updates designed to drive international adoption of its decentralized id platform.
The updates included the launch of World Chain, an Ethereum-secured Layer 2 blockchain, and the revealing of a brand new model of the challenge’s biometric Orb gadgets.
Accelerating development
The rebranding highlights World Community’s evolving mission, transitioning from its authentic id verification mannequin to a broader, extra decentralized community.
With 15 million customers presently, together with 7 million verified by means of its Orb expertise, the platform has set its sights on dramatically rising that quantity because it seems to be to onboard a billion verified human customers.
Blania, who can be the CEO of Instruments for Humanity, famous that the challenge is now targeted on scalability and decentralization. He stated:
“Right this moment, we’re taking the subsequent huge step in our mission — scaling the World Community to succeed in 1 billion customers.”
World’s new model of the Orb, which scans a person’s iris to confirm their id, is central to the challenge’s ambition to develop its international footprint. Blania stated World will triple its manufacturing capability and increase into new international locations, together with flagship areas in Buenos Aires and Mexico Metropolis.
The up to date Orbs can be made out there in public areas corresponding to cafes and can even be deliverable on demand, a part of a wider effort to make verification extra accessible. The rollout of those new Orbs is anticipated by spring 2025.
World Chain and digital id
Alongside the growth of its biometric capabilities, World formally launched World Chain, a Layer 2 blockchain constructed on the Ethereum community.
The blockchain is designed to help hundreds of thousands of customers. On its first day, the challenge claimed 15 million registrations globally. In line with the corporate, this makes World Chain one of many largest human verification blockchains in existence.
The World App, a central part of the challenge, is being up to date to Model 3.0. This replace will permit customers to handle their World ID credentials and entry different companies, corresponding to World Pay, a decentralized fee system, and World Chat, a messaging instrument.
The app can even introduce video games and a messaging system known as World Chat to additional interact customers and onboard extra individuals. Altman, who additionally leads OpenAI, stated World goals to be “the nameless human layer for the web,” serving to folks distinguish themselves from AI actors.
He additional emphasised the rising significance of human id verification as AI continues to advance. In line with the OpenAI CEO:
“As AI turns into extra built-in into our lives, having a trusted human verification layer is essential.”
