- Sam Altman’s Worldcoin project is now called “World” and plans to release “Orb 2.0” – a faster, simpler eyeball-scanning device to verify people’s identities online.
- World is opening storefronts with Orbs in Buenos Aires and Mexico City, placing Orbs in everyday locations like coffee shops, and allowing people to summon Orbs to their homes through an app.
- World will also let people onboard by submitting government IDs instead of using Orbs, and is launching “World ID Deep Faces” to confirm people online aren’t deepfakes.
Worldcoin, a project created by AI expert Sam Altman, has rebranded as simply “World” as it aims to expand access to its iris-scanning orbs. The orbs are designed to assign anonymous digital identities to people after verifying their humanity.
New Orb Design Promises Speed and Scalability
At a recent media event, World employees unveiled plans for “Orb 2.0.” The new orb model will be faster to produce, run more efficiently with upgraded chips, and operate on open source code.
“We need more orbs, lots more orbs, probably on the order of 1,000 more orbs than we have today,” said chief designer Rich Heley. “Not only more orbs, but more orbs in more places.”
Bringing Orbs to Main Street
In addition to “premium verification experiences” in major cities, World plans to place orbs in everyday locations like local coffee shops. Orbs will also be summonable to homes through an app “much like a pizza,” Heley said.
Alternative Onboarding to Boost Adoption
To accelerate adoption of its world ID system, World will allow people to onboard simply by submitting government IDs rather than using an orb.
“Of course, they won’t have used an orb so we won’t really know they’re human, we just know they’re a thing that has a passport,” said Chief Information Security Officer Adiran Ludwig. Checks are in place to prevent deepfakes.
New Product Combats Deep Fakes
World is introducing a product called World ID Deep Faces to help internet users confirm the identities of who they are communicating with online, provided they have a World ID.
Token Price Drops Slightly After Announcement
The price of World’s WLD token fell around 5% following the presentation.
