Sam Altman’s startup, Tools for Humanity, has secured hundreds of millions of dollars in funding based on an ambitious and forward-looking vision—one that proposes using the uniquely human characteristic of an individual’s eyes to confirm identity in an age increasingly dominated by artificial intelligence. At the heart of this audacious concept is the Orb, a meticulously engineered metallic sphere roughly the size of a volleyball, polished to a futuristic sheen. This high-tech device scans an individual’s iris to generate what the company calls a “World ID,” a personalized digital identifier intended to function like an international passport for the digital realm. The underlying idea is simple yet transformative: to establish a reliable method of distinguishing actual human beings from sophisticated machines and artificial personas proliferating across the internet.
When users position themselves before the Orb’s luminous optical sensor—submitting to the device’s glowing, almost sentient gaze—they undergo a process that verifies their humanity with biometric precision. Once authenticated, participants gain entry to what Tools for Humanity calls an “interactive human network,” a digital ecosystem designed to connect verified individuals across the world. Within this network lies the World app, a multifunctional platform featuring a suite of integrated “mini apps,” a fully operational messaging system, and a secure digital wallet. After their irises have been scanned and validated, users are also eligible to claim tokens of the company’s cryptocurrency, Worldcoin, which presently has a modest market value—approximately eighty cents per coin.
Major venture capital firms such as Andreessen Horowitz, Bain Capital, and Khosla Ventures have collectively invested about $240 million, valuing Tools for Humanity at an estimated $2.5 billion, according to data from PitchBook. The company has equally grand aspirations: to expand to an audience of one billion users worldwide—a target that would position it among the most widely adopted technologies in human history.
According to Business Insider, which interviewed eight former employees, a former Orb operator from Kenya, and a previous head of operations in Mexico City, opinions within and around the company remain mixed. While many employees were initially drawn to the powerful mission statement—and to the allure of collaborating on a project backed by Sam Altman, one of Silicon Valley’s most influential figures—some expressed doubts about whether Tools for Humanity has articulated a clear and sustainable long-term business model. Industry experts have echoed similar apprehensions, questioning the project’s viability amid fierce competition in the overlapping markets of digital payment systems and identity verification technologies.
Nick Maynard, vice president of fintech market research at Juniper Research, articulated the prevailing skepticism bluntly, telling Business Insider that the company had yet to identify a definitive “killer use case” that could propel substantial user adoption. As of now, Tools for Humanity reports having verified approximately 17.5 million individuals—representing less than two percent of its lofty target. Nonetheless, Orbs are already deployed in over 20 countries, ranging from Mexico to South Korea.
Yet the company’s rapid global expansion faces formidable challenges. Regulators across multiple jurisdictions are increasingly scrutinizing its practices, citing ethical and privacy concerns tied to the mass collection of biometric data. Authorities in countries such as Spain, India, and Indonesia have launched investigations or temporarily restricted operations. In Germany, a 2023 inquiry concluded that the company’s cybersecurity framework would not provide adequate protection against threats from either cybercriminals or potential state-level actors—although Tools for Humanity has appealed the decision while regulators assess its updated technology. Meanwhile, China’s Ministry of State Security has cautioned that the mass accumulation of iris data tied to cryptocurrency usage could pose a national security risk.
The drumbeat of regulatory pushback intensified in October, when official bodies in the Philippines, Colombia, and Thailand all took action. The Philippine National Privacy Commission ordered the company to halt its iris-scanning activities, labeling them a violation of national data protection law. Colombian regulators went further, mandating the immediate cessation of operations and deletion of collected data. In Thailand, law enforcement raided scanning locations and arrested individuals on charges of running an unlicensed digital asset enterprise. Tools for Humanity has vowed to appeal these rulings. In response to such controversies, a company spokesperson told Business Insider that the mission remains unwavering: “World was designed for every human, which is why we are proud to have launched on multiple continents, spanning fully connected urban centers to remote rural areas.” The representative emphasized that the project aims to encapsulate the diversity and richness of humanity itself while providing an essential “proof of personhood” layer to the internet—a safeguard increasingly crucial in an era when artificial intelligence can seamlessly mimic human traits.
Still, with regulatory clouds looming over some of the world’s largest and most populous nations, achieving the company’s billion-user milestone may prove exceedingly difficult. As Maynard observed, without major breakthroughs on the regulatory front, “scale will be an impossible task.”
Altman conceived the initiative in 2019 as a technological bulwark against an impending societal dilemma: the rapid rise of advanced AI systems capable of emulating human language, thought patterns, and even emotional expression. As tools like ChatGPT and other generative AI models blur the boundary between human and machine, Tools for Humanity positions World ID as a crucial mechanism to reassure users that they are interacting with genuine people rather than automated entities. According to one former employee, Altman’s dual involvement with both OpenAI and Tools for Humanity created an apt metaphor: “He is creating the disease, but he also wants to create the cure.” Internal discussions reportedly explored potential integration between World ID and OpenAI’s services to verify the humanity of users engaging with AI systems.
Alex Blania, Tools for Humanity’s cofounder and CEO, has described the project as rooted in simplicity despite its technological complexity. Speaking on a podcast in 2022, Blania summarized the founding philosophy: to issue a token simply “for being human.” Such a token-driven ecosystem, he explained, could naturally evolve into an immense, borderless network of verified individuals—a foundation for what he called a “network-based business.” However, behind the minimalist ideal lies a tangled corporate web. Tools for Humanity operates as a for-profit enterprise headquartered in San Francisco and Munich, while the overall World project is governed by the Cayman Islands-based World Foundation. That foundation directs World Assets Limited, incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, which manages distribution of the Worldcoin tokens. Altman and Blania, who met when Altman pitched the concept to the then-young German physicist over coffee, co-founded the enterprise with an overarching objective: to scale at unprecedented speed. “Everything is optimized around that,” Blania has said. “How do we get to this billion-user number as quickly as we can?”
The financial backbone supporting this ambition has come from successive funding rounds amounting to nearly a quarter of a billion dollars. Tools for Humanity has expanded into key markets in the United Kingdom and the United States, setting up Orb locations in cities such as London and Los Angeles. Partnerships and pilot programs have been announced with brands like Match Group—to verify Tinder users in Japan—along with payment giants Visa and Stripe, and even gaming company Razer. Reports have also indicated that Reddit has explored potential collaboration for user verification. But the hardware rollouts have proven costly. According to former employees, each Orb costs thousands of dollars to produce, and maintaining reliable connectivity remains an obstacle in many regions.
Financial sustainability looms as another pressing concern. Because the company does not charge users to access its services and publicly asserts that it will not monetize personal data, its immediate revenue avenues are limited. Recent attempts to diversify include implementing fees for applications that rely on World ID verification and launching a “community operator” initiative that allows third parties to lease or purchase Orbs. Additionally, the company collects network transaction fees associated with its blockchain, World Chain, though insiders have suggested those revenues are insufficient to cover operating costs. As one former employee put it, the company remains dependent on continued venture capital inflows: “As long as VC money keeps flowing in, it will stay afloat.”
Critics both inside and outside the organization question what tangible problem the technology currently solves for users, beyond distributing free cryptocurrency. Martha Bennett, principal analyst at Forrester, summarized this skepticism succinctly: “There isn’t an incentive around buying or leasing an Orb other than making money off it by scanning eyeballs. For the users, it’s simply to get some more coins.” Cryptocurrency experts share these doubts, noting that Worldcoin’s valuation—significantly less than one-thousandth of Bitcoin’s market capitalization—renders it experimental at best. As finance professor Nikhil Bhatia of the University of Southern California observed, “It’s difficult to see Worldcoin as anything beyond a short-term experiment or passing fad.”
Operational practices have also raised controversy. Tools for Humanity’s deployment model relies heavily on independent contractors across multiple countries, rewarding them in Worldcoin tokens for each person enrolled. In Mexico City, head of operations Luis Ruben De Valadéz recalled overseeing seven Orb scanning locations that were partially financed by company reimbursements but often required personal upfront investment. While he described the experience positively overall, he noted that greater financial and logistical support for local operators would have been beneficial.
Former employees have described the company’s early growth tactics as reminiscent of Uber’s expansion during its turbulent early years—prioritizing rapid market capture over formal regulatory approval. Many of the initial rollouts targeted economically disadvantaged communities, particularly in parts of Latin America and Africa, where the promise of cryptocurrency rewards proved an effective incentive. Reports from Brazil and Kenya indicate that newly verified users often immediately exchanged their Worldcoin tokens for local currency, prompting Tools for Humanity to delay token disbursement by 24 hours to discourage speculative activity.
Meanwhile, local controversies multiplied. In Argentina, instances emerged of third-party groups bussing individuals to scanning sites, offering financial rewards in exchange for participation, and even collecting temporary-use phones afterward. Police in the Chaco province stopped one such bus carrying about 55 passengers who admitted to having their irises scanned for payment, though they claimed to have done so voluntarily. These episodes intensified broader ethical questions surrounding the exploitation of vulnerable populations. As analyst Bennett put it, “They started in countries where people are truly desperate for money. It made it easy to ramp up numbers and collect large volumes of biometric data.”
Though Tools for Humanity publicly cites millions of registered users, some insiders maintain that a significant portion of those figures reflect short-term participants who deleted the app after cashing out. Nonetheless, the company insists it coordinates closely with local authorities, conducting extensive research to ensure compliance. In the words of its spokesperson, before entering any new market, the project undertakes “a thorough review to ensure adherence to applicable legal frameworks.”
This intricate mosaic of innovation, controversy, and ambition ultimately defines Tools for Humanity’s global experiment: a quest to verify human authenticity in an increasingly synthetic digital world—an undertaking that inspires both fascination and unease in equal measure.
Sourse: https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-altman-orb-eye-scanning-startup-billion-user-goal-viability-2025-11
