Worldcoin, Sam Altman’s cryptocurrency venture, is now integrating its verification services into popular apps such as Reddit, Discord, Shopify, Mercado Libre, Telegram, and Minecraft. The move is part of Altman’s World ID 2.0, which describes itself as “a human passport for the internet.”
“Applications can now let you verify existing accounts to apply a verification status, like a blue checkmark,” Worldcoin said in a blog post Wednesday. “They can also optionally enable World ID as a sign in method for a more seamless experience.”
If you haven’t heard of Worldcoin before, buckle up. Worldcoin is the OpenAI CEO’s cryptocurrency project, which aims to redistribute wealth to the people after artificial intelligence captures all the world’s money. You sign into Worldcoin with a scan of your eyeball through a giant metal orb (stay with me), so the company hopes to also become the internet’s default verification system. Users of mainstream internet platforms like Minecraft and Shopify can now “verify their humanness” with the World ID, and Altman’s vision for Worldcoin got one step closer to reality.
Just so we’re all on the same page: Sam Altman, the man who is creating artificial intelligence (ChatGPT) also wants to verify your identity (World ID) and create your new financial system (Worldcoin).
A Worldcoin blog post says Wednesday’s upgrades “cement World ID as the most secure, private, and inclusive proof of humanity.” If you thought OpenAI’s chaos was taking all of Sam Altman’s attention, you were wrong.
Verification is one of the newest, and most concerning, trends in technology. Elon Musk asks users to be verified on X to use Grok, his AI chatbot. This comes at a cost of approximately $20 a month and ID verification. Altman’s system requires you to sacrifice your biodata as well as sign up for his vision for wealth redistribution. If your product makes Elon Musk’s X look safe that should be cause for concern.
Worldcoin released an entire app store of platforms integrated with its verification technology. It’s no surprise that many of these early adopters are fintech companies, such as Shopify and Mercado Libre, which could one day adopt Worldcoin as a legitimate payment service. However, it’s not there yet.
Minecraft is a surprising participant on this list, as the platform’s creator, Mojang Studios, declared it was pulling Bitcoin payments in September. The popular video game briefly included a play-to-earn option, where users could earn cryptocurrency by playing Minecraft on certain servers, but Mojang Studios removed it from the platform after less than a year. Minecraft’s integration with Worldcoin does not include cryptocurrency, but it’s a sign that one day it could.