Sam Altman’s biometric identity startup World announced on April 25, 2026, that Tinder users worldwide can now add a verified-human badge to their profiles — provided they have already had their irises scanned by one of World’s white Orb devices. The announcement was made at World’s Lift Off event in San Francisco and follows an earlier pilot program the company ran in Japan.
Tools for Humanity, the company behind World, also revealed partnerships with Zoom and Docusign at the same event. Zoom will allow meeting hosts to require participants to verify their identity through World before joining a call, while Docusign will let users require World’s verification technology for contract signing. World is additionally launching Concert Kit, a tool that lets artists reserve concert tickets exclusively for verified humans — a direct response to the bot-driven ticket scalping problem associated with platforms like Ticketmaster.
Tinder users who verify through World ID will receive five free “boosts” as an incentive — a feature that normally requires payment and increases profile visibility by up to 10 times for 30 minutes.
World was founded in 2019 by Altman, who is also CEO of OpenAI, and Alex Blania. The project was built around the premise that AI agents would eventually make it extremely difficult to distinguish humans from bots online. When a person’s eyes are scanned by an Orb, World generates a unique cryptographic key — their World ID — creating a decentralized identity credential that does not require uploading government-issued identification.
The company says 18 million people have now been verified through an Orb, up from 12 million the previous year. Despite that growth, World has struggled to reach mainstream adoption and has faced government scrutiny in multiple countries over suspected data protection violations.
Tiago Sada, Tools for Humanity’s chief product officer, told WIRED that platform partnerships are central to the company’s strategy for mainstream adoption, and that he sees social media companies as a key target. Reddit has already begun testing World as a tool to help users identify bots. World also noted that social media platform Reddit has started testing its verification technology for the same purpose.
Originally launched as Worldcoin in 2023 — when the startup offered free cryptocurrency in exchange for iris scans — the project dropped “coin” from its name in 2024 and shifted its emphasis to identity verification. The company still offers cryptocurrency as a sign-up incentive, but has expanded its offerings to include trials for Netflix and Apple TV subscriptions.
Source: Business Latest