Donovan Choy

This is a segment from the 0xResearch newsletter. To read full editions, <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/0xresearch">subscribe</a>.



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World is the one crypto project that you either love or hate.



Since launch, the Sam Altman-backed World (previously Worldcoin) has been roundly <a href="https://x.com/DefiSquared/status/1790075349373694174">criticized</a> for its “low float” tokenomics and <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/lightspeed-newsletter-worldcoin-reputation-problem">faced scrutiny</a> from regulators stemming from <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/world-coin-temporarily-blocked-spain">data privacy concerns</a>.



Yet, World continues to stand out in the industry for trying to do something uniquely innovative.



Despite the WLD token’s 88% slump from its 2024 highs, the team announced last week an undiscounted <a href="https://x.com/worldcoin/status/1925253926929997841">sale</a> of $135 million in WLD to Andreessen Horowitz and Bain Capital Crypto. Mirana Ventures and Selini Capital also participated in the sale, the latter of which <a href="https://x.com/SeliniCapital/status/1925560024614805974">claimed</a> that it “wrote its (by far) largest-ever check.”



Which made me question: What do some of the world’s top institutional investors see in a project almost universally vilified by Crypto Twitter?



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">World ID</h2>



At the heart of World’s business model is the distribution involved with World ID, the team’s open-source digital identity product.



Why sign up? In exchange for registering their biometric data at an Orb (World’s signature <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sam-altman-worldcoin-orb-mini-eye-scan">iris-scanning device</a>), users are offered WLD token incentives.



It’s (almost) as simple as that.



To date, <a href="https://world.org/">12.6 million</a> unique humans have Orbed. To put World’s distribution into rough perspective, Coinbase has something like <a href="https://www.theblock.co/data/crypto-markets/public-companies/coinbase-monthly-transacting-users">10 million</a> monthly active users, while Telegram has a billion (note these aren’t quite apple-to-apple comparisons).



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">World App and World Chain</h2>



World’s distributional funnel has helped fuel about 27 million users to <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sam-altman-worldcoin-orb-mini-eye-scan">onboard its World App</a>, an ecosystem hub of hundreds of “<a href="https://www.miniapps.world/">miniapps</a>” ranging from DeFi (Morpho), lottery games (PoolTogether), messaging, minigames like Wordle, payments, etc.



Miniapps are deployed on World Chain, the team’s Ethereum L2 built on the Optimism stack. The chain has seen some <a href="https://blockworks-research.beehiiv.com/p/markets-defy-logic">growth lately</a>.



What makes World Chain different is how the chain’s execution layer ties in with World ID.



For instance, users with a verified World ID can receive priority transaction inclusion over arbitrage bots on World Chain, or what the team calls “<a href="https://world.org/blog/engineering/introducing-pbh-priority-blockspace-for-humans">Priority Blockspace for Humans</a>.” The team also codifies rules that redirect transaction fees from bots to <a href="https://docs.world.org/world-chain">subsidize</a> gas costs of World ID users onchain.&nbsp;



World Chain isn’t all that interested in competing with dominant chains though, as Liam Horne, Optimism co-founder and advisor to World, told me.



What World wants to do is “to own the end-to-end user experience and ultimately the distribution of millions of people with World ID and World App,” Horne said.



“Our framing is not &#8216;Check out this app built on World Chain.’ Instead, it is &#8216;Tap into the millions of World ID users that want to use digital assets for their day-to-day financial and consumer needs.'&#8221;



It all hinges on World ID adoption. The north star is to build a “human hub,” and World is leveraging the tool of token incentives to do so.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">World’s business model</h2>



World ID is freely available for other teams to leverage today, though monetization will kick in later.



Today, World ID is integrated on World Chain, Ethereum, Optimism and even <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/lightspeed-newsletter-worldcoin-id-solana">Solana</a> (via Wormhole).



<a href="https://www.globalgovernmentfintech.com/malaysia-mimos-worldcoin/">Governments</a>, Web3 companies (<a href="https://world.org/ecosystem/app_74ee4e7a7d9f20328aba68a5ec72996a">DSCVR</a>, <a href="https://world.org/ecosystem/app_8b24dbefe1f3e6c41350f5e9b61f41d6">Galxe</a>) and traditional companies like Razer, Match Group and Shopify have also integrated World ID to better their services.



These companies have business models that are negatively impacted by bots. World ID represents the solution for them to curb this value leakage.



Match Group for instance, will probably give World ID-verified Tinder users some kind of checkmark or user privilege, which in turn improves the overall user experience (and spurs more users to seek out an Orb).



Or to use a more crypto-native example, dapps can better tune their growth campaigns to target real users with points/airdrop rewards. An uncollateralized lending product, for instance, could more efficiently reward real human users, making the multi-wallet practice of airdrop farming obsolete.



World eventually <a href="https://world.org/blog/announcements/introducing-world-id-fees">plans</a> to charge fees to apps for using World ID (full details out by Q3 2025).



That’s where the consistent demand sink for WLD token comes in — institutions paying to use World ID, instead of speculative interest from retail.



But can demand for WLD outpace the rapid unlocking of its token supply?



WLD has had rather hefty inflation — 600% in just the last 12 months, according to Delphi Digital’s <a href="https://members.delphidigital.io/reports/world-a-trillion-dollar-opportunity-or-just-another-low-float-high-fdv#tokenomics-4f4f">estimates</a>. For context, in the early days of WLD’s token, WLD had an enormously low float of merely <a href="https://x.com/DylanLeClair_/status/1683513205224534016">1%</a>, though that has increased to about 15% today.&nbsp;



In an age of infinitely AI-generated content, the need for humanness is growing. World is primed to tackle this head on.



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World’s biometric identity ambitions draw $135M in fresh funding

Kate Irwin

This is a segment from The Drop newsletter. To read full editions, <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/thedrop" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">subscribe</a>.



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Worldcoin — usable via the World mobile app — is finally launching in the US and making a big splash with a slew of big integrations.



World cofounder and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman briefly took the stage during the live event Wednesday night and declared: “I am a very proud American.”&nbsp;



Thanks for that, Sam.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Orbs in America</h2>



US residents can now <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/worldcoin-eyeballs-scan-brooklyn">get their irises scanned</a> to claim some WLD tokens as part of an ongoing airdrop. Iris-scanning Orbs are being set up in Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville and San Francisco to start (sorry, New Yorkers).&nbsp;



Those in the US who pre-registered for World have also been airdropped 150 WLD, which is about $150.



The for-profit firm Tools for Humanity is the developer of World, and the nonprofit World Foundation is behind the Worldcoin token.



TFH’s goal is to “verify” as many humans as possible and get people set up with World IDs so that humans can discern between AI or bot accounts and real human-run accounts. Users can get verified World IDs by getting their irises scanned by a metallic Orb (if this sounds dystopian to you, you’re not wrong).



The next step in this vision is the Orb Mini, revealed Wednesday night. It looks like an eyephone with Apple Vision sockets on the back, if you ask me:



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">NEW: the Orb Mini can scan to verify humans for the World Network <a href="https://t.co/LbnuzU8OlO">pic.twitter.com/LbnuzU8OlO</a>&mdash; The Drop (@thedropnft) <a href="https://twitter.com/thedropnft/status/1917769725318177029?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 1, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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The Orb Mini’s main purpose is to make scanning people’s irises easier, but at some point, it’s expected to also serve as a point-of-sale terminal.



“We tried everything not to build a hardware device,” said Tools for Humanity CEO Alex Blania on developing the Orb concept. He also noted the company has spent “millions” on developing the Orbs.



The Orb Mini as a point-of-sale would mean you could buy items using just your eyeballs, and the Orb would deduct the amount to be paid from your World wallet. Sounds like a Black Mirror episode — or like Amazon’s pay-with-your-palm thing.



Until that day comes, you can pay for items with a World Visa card instead that pulls directly from your World wallet.



The standard-size Orb has also been updated, which we knew about previously, and they’ve made a point of reminding us there’s <a href="https://www.pcmag.com/news/sam-altman-worldcoin-launches-deep-face-new-eye-scanning-orb">an Nvidia chip</a> in there.



Orb manufacturing is being spun up in Texas, too.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">World 4.0</h2>



The World app received another big update with its 4.0 edition. Verified profile pictures and a Stripe integration are also being added.&nbsp;



Within the World app, there’s now a prediction markets mini-app called Kalsi available to US residents where users can make predictions with WLD. Morpho, another miniapp, enables DeFi lending for World wallet users to borrow against crypto held in that wallet (Morpho’s also available for the US).



Circle’s USDC is also being added natively to the World app, with plans for a Euro stablecoin to be added at some point.



TFH is <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/world-id-verification-gaming">continuing its gaming plans</a> with a “League of Humans” tournament with gaming tech firm Razer, will put Orbs in Razer stores, and may add its “Deep Face” tech to Razer webcams for deepfake prevention and human verification.&nbsp;



During a press conference, the TFH team said South Korea is also a big focus for them because of the country’s strong presence in the gaming world.



World ID badges on Tinder, Hinge, and Match will be piloted in Japan to verify dating profiles in the country.



TFH says there are a total of 26 million World accounts now with 12 million verified users. Over 350 million World crypto wallet transactions have occurred in total.



Despite all this news, the WLD token price didn’t do much — it climbed from about $1.02 at the start of the live event, rose to $1.16, and then fell back to $1.05 by the end of the night.



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sam altman