“Orb” is a silver medal-sized device that scans human iris to generate and store unique biometric data, which sounds like a story from a science fiction novel. However, the devices are real, developed by a startup co-founded by Openai Ceo Sam Altman and can now be developed in six U.S. cities.
Altman revealed the expansion of the U.S. world at an event yesterday (April 30), the digital logo project behind ORB. These devices are now found in seven locations, crossing Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville and San Francisco.
The World is the Creative of Human Tools, a company founded in 2019 by Altman and Deep Learning Fellow Alex Blania. Its mission is to establish a simple, secure form of human verification in the future, in which AI can blur the boundaries between people and robots online.
Originally known as WorldCoin, the project was renamed World to create a unique “world ID” for individuals, verifiable proof of personality, and can also be used in cryptocurrency transactions and other digital services.
According to the World Website, the World ID is generated by a scan from Orb, which is currently available in nearly 900 locations around the world. The world's goal is to deploy 7,500 ORB devices in the United States by the end of this year, with the goal of reaching 180 million Americans. Globally, the project has claimed to have 12 million authenticated world ID holders and ultimately targeting 1 billion users.
How does the ball work?
Orbs works as follows: The device takes about 30 seconds to scan a person's iris, collect data to generate world IDs and reward users with a small number of projects' WLD cryptocurrencies. Orb is powered by NVIDIA's (NVDA) Jetson chipset to measure iris patterns rather than more common biometric data (such as fingerprints), which are more susceptible to external changes.
Human Tools will begin assembling some of its spheres in the United States for the first time and launch a domestic production line in Richardson, Texas. After the initial launch of the first six cities, the company plans to expand to Seattle, Orlando, San Diego and Las Vegas. “They're really everywhere,” Blania said at the launch. “They're going to be at the gas station, in the convenience store – you'll be able to verify yourself in 10 minutes (basically wherever you are).
Despite the seemingly bizarre premise, the world has attracted support from major Silicon Valley investors. According to Crunchbase, it has raised more than $240 million since 2019 from companies such as Andreessen Horowitz, Khosla Ventures and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman.
In addition to the U.S. expansion, the world has announced two new partnerships aimed at enhancing its digital ID vision. The partnership with Visa will introduce the World Card later this year, allowing world ID holders to accept digital assets anywhere. World has also partnered with Match Group to use World ID as an age verification tool for online dating platforms, starting with Tinder (MTCH) users in Japan.
