World (blockchain)

World, also known as World Network, is a humanity verification project and financial network. It was developed and launched as the cryptocurrency project Worldcoin. Among other organizations, contributors to the project include Tools for Humanity, a company founded in 2019 by Sam Altman, Max Novendstern, and Alex Blania. World's stated mission is to provide a reliable and anonymous way to authenticate humans online, which it calls World ID. After accumulating $250 million in funding from venture capital firms such as Andreessen Horowitz, it launched out of beta in 2023. The project was rebranded as World in 2024, at which point it had partnerships with the governments of Taiwan and Malaysia concerning digital identity verification. To join the network, new users complete biometric verification by the company's Orb hardware, with users in some locales then receiving Worldcoin (WLD), a digital token. This collection process has caused privacy concerns in multiple countries.