Tools for Humanity, the organization behind Sam Altman’s iris-scanning project Worldcoin, has hinted at potential partnerships with leading technology and financial firms, according to reports from Bloomberg.
The CEO of Tools for Humanity, Alex Blania, suggested a potential collaboration with OpenAI, citing natural synergies for future cooperation. However, no official announcements have been made at this time. Blania also mentioned discussions with PayPal, although concrete progress has not yet been achieved.
A representative from Tools for Humanity informed Fortune that there are no new updates to share currently. Both PayPal and OpenAI have not responded to requests for comments.
Worldcoin has previously partnered with major tech companies. In the past year, the organization worked with Okta, a cybersecurity company, to create a “sign in with Worldcoin” authentication service, providing developers with an alternative to similar tools offered by Apple and Google, as reported by Bloomberg.
During Tools for Humanity’s funding round in October 2021, Three Arrows participated in a \(25 million investment, valuing the company at \)1 billion. Additionally, Sam Bankman-Fried, the co-founder of FTX, was an early investor in the venture.
What is Worldcoin?
Worldcoin, as defined on its website, is a “free, privacy-preserving, open protocol designed to function as the world’s largest identity and financial public network.”
The platform’s objective is to authenticate an individual’s “humanness” in the face of bots and deepfakes by having users gaze into an orb, which then converts their biometric data into an encrypted numerical string. Through an algorithm, this code validates a person’s unique identity, generating a World ID stored within the World App. Users are rewarded with Worldcoin tokens, currently priced at around $5, for participating in the scan.
Tiago Sada, Tools for Humanity’s head of product, stressed, “The key question now is not if there will be proof of personhood, but rather, will it be open-source, decentralized, and privacy-preserving?”
However, the use of Orbs has raised privacy concerns in various European countries, with Germany being the only market where Worldcoin can currently collect biometric data. Critics have highlighted that Altman, the co-founder and chairman of Tools for Humanity, is essentially addressing issues accelerated by another of his ventures, OpenAI.
The future interest in the initiative remains uncertain, with the market capitalization of Worldcoin tokens decreasing by almost half in the last month to approximately $942 million, based on CoinGecko data.
To boost adoption, the Worldcoin Foundation, the entity behind Worldcoin, recently introduced World Chain, a permissionless, open-source layer-2 set to launch in mid-2024. This blockchain will be closely integrated with the Worldcoin protocol and will prioritize users with a World ID.