Sam Altman’s blockchain project world has given rise to controversy in the past because of its use of iris scanning technology to create digital identities. But the World Foundation Advisor Liam Horne says that the controversy around this technology, known as Orbs, is often misunderstood.
It’s “actually the very opposite” of what critics share about the world or Altman who owns this data, Thorne said Wednesday on a panel in Consensus 2025. “The data literally never leaves Orb.”
World Network uses its bullets chrome, bowling-shaped devices to perform iris scans that verify a person’s unique identity as part of a system called “proof-of-personhood.” When a user looks at an ORB, the device maps their iris and immediately converts the biometric to a privacy’s preservative address known as a world ID that proves that a user is a real, unique person rather than a bot.
The project has been subjected to control over several jurisdictions of supervisory authorities in Europe, Africa and Asia, which raise concerns about data protection and consent. But Horne repeated that the system is designed to be privacy from scratch.
Previously, Orbs was only available in selected places in South America, Asia and Africa, but earlier this month the team behind World shared that they expanded to the United States and brought bullets to six different cities including Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville and San Francisco.
Read more: Sam Altmans World Crypto Project is launched in us with eye-scanning bullets in 6 cities
