Sam Altman’s World launches in six U.S. cities to expand its ‘proof of human’ services

World (formerly Worldcoin) launched in six U.S. cities, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Atlanta, marking a major expansion for the company’s ‘proof of human’ services. The project, backed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, also announced plans to launch a Visa card for digital assets payments and a Tinder verification pilot program.     

Sam Altman’s digital identity project, now rebranded as ‘World,’ revealed plans to officially plant its feet in the U.S., with enrollment centers popping up in major cities like Austin, San Francisco, and Miami. The project aims to have enough orbs spread throughout the U.S. to give 180 million Americans access to its network by the end of 2025.

The venture also announced two high-profile partnerships with Visa and the online dating giant Match Group. According to World, the partnership with Visa will introduce the “World Visa card” this summer, available only to people who have had their irises scanned by World, while Match Group will begin a pilot program to test out World ID and some age verification tools with Tinder in Japan. More than 12M people have used the tool to verify their identities in countries including the Philippines, Portugal, and Thailand.

World launches across six U.S. cities to expand its ‘proof of human’ services

World is live in the USA. Verify your World ID in six key cities now. pic.twitter.com/cju65pn7L7

— World (@worldcoin) May 1, 2025

Altman’s eye-scanning venture officially made its U.S. debut on Thursday, May 1st, as the company opened six flagship U.S. retail locations, including Austin, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Nashville, Miami, and San Francisco–where people could sign up to have their eyeballs scanned. More than 7K of World’s orbs will be available for iris scans at these locations.

Adrian Ludwig, chief architect of Tools for Humanity, said the company met with U.S. regulators—without mentioning specific names—ahead of its planned expansion. Tools for Humanity also said the information it collected was encrypted and that it did store personal data.                                

Ludwig, also the Chief Information Security Officer at Tools for Humanity, previously revealed that the project stored individuals’ data separately safe among multiple parties, adding that a malicious actor would have to compromise all of them simultaneously to gain access or manipulate all the personal data.

The World team also claimed that the need for genuine connection had never been greater than it is today, adding that meeting new people should feel exciting and secure, with tools that make it easier to trust and connect authentically.

World plans to introduce a Visa card and a Tinder pilot program 

World also announced plans to launch a Visa card, allowing users to make payments using their WLD tokens or other digital currency. The new ‘World Visa Card’ will be available in the U.S. later this year.

According to the World team, the new card will connect directly to a user’s World App wallet, enabling them to spend their digital assets anywhere Visa is accepted. Merchants will also be able to seamlessly receive fiat currency without needing to understand crypto, while people will gain flexibility in how they spend their digital assets.

The team also said the project had partnered with Match Group, the parent company behind several popular dating apps. However, Ludwig pointed out that it will be up to Match to integrate the ‘proof-of-humanity’ credential across more dating brands like Tinder, Hinge, Match.com, and Plenty of Fish. 

“For consumers, they don’t want to think about this technology,” Ludwig said. “What they want to think about is: ‘I want to be dating real people.”

–Adrian Ludwig, Chief Architect and Information Security Officer at Tools for Humanity

Ludwig also envisioned a future where a person’s background check results could be linked to their Orb-verified identity but added that would require deeper partnerships with various identity services.

Cryptopolitan Academy: Tired of market swings? Learn how DeFi can help you build steady passive income. Register Now