Worldcoin developer Tools for Humanity raises $115 million led by Blockchain Capital

Tools for Humanity, the developer behind eyeball scanning startup Worldcoin, today announced a $115 million fundraising led by Blockchain Capital to accelerate its research and development growth and global reach.

This news confirms a report earlier this month that Sam Altman, co-founder of Worldcoin and CEO of artificial intelligence company OpenAI LP, was in talks with investors to raise funds. Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto arm a16z, Bain Capital Crypto and Distributed Global also joined the Series C funding round.

Worldcoin seeks to provide people with a globally distributed cryptocurrency and an inclusive identity network, to do this there must be a secure way to identify people. To do this, Worldcoin offers iris scanners called “Orbs”, which produce a unique ID for each person called “World ID”, and give them a cryptocurrency called World tokens. This creates a biometric identification for each individual that both prevents multiple registrations and proves they are not a bot.

The project’s vision is that it will become “a public utility that will be owned by everyone regardless of their background or economic status”.

The use of iris-scanning biometrics and the crypto network that Worldcoin produces can help with two different problems raised by the spread of AI. First, as mentioned above, by having biometric security each individual can be sure to be known to be a human and not a sophisticated AI bot, and second, Worldcoin says it can build a worldwide network for universal basic income even as AI robots begin to disrupt labor markets.

“As we enter the age of AI, it is critical that individuals are able to maintain their privacy while proving their humanity,” said Alex Blania, CEO and co-founder of Tools for Humanity and contributor to Worldcoin. “By doing so, we can help ensure that everyone can realize the economic benefits that AI is poised to deliver.”

Altman himself spoke about the future effects of AI on labor markets to lawmakers during a Senate hearing earlier this month. “We understand that new AI tools can have a profound impact on the labor market,” Altman said. “We expect significant economic impacts from AI in the near term, including a mix of increased productivity for individual users, job creation, job transformation and job displacement.”

The funding will go towards developing the World App, a digital wallet that will allow users to hold Worldcoin tokens. Once users join the network, they will be able to fill the app’s wallet with cryptocurrency and use the tokens to buy and sell them for services and goods by sending them to friends and family using their phone as a contact.

Since its launch, more than 1.5 million people have joined the beta phase of the World App. It currently processes more than 60,000 transactions a day for more than 600,000 monthly active users.

Image: Tools for Humanity