Is OpenAI building a social network — and will it link up with @worldcoin?
The two have long been connected through Sam Altman, but now a tie-up looks strategically inevitable. AI needs human data, and World provides a way to verify it.
Here’s how World could power OpenAI’s next move.👇
~~ Analysis by @davewardonline ~
🧱 The Five Pillars: How World Works
World is a full-stack system. Think of it like building a digital country: identity, currency, infrastructure, and apps.
World ID
World ID is your digital citizenship — a ZK-powered identifier that proves you're human without exposing sensitive data.
Once verified, your ID unlocks access to services needing human verification, like World mini apps or gated airdrops.
Real integrations already exist:
@kalshi uses it for secure sign-ins
Tinder Japan uses it for age checks
Razer uses it to combat bots in games
So far, nearly 13 million IDs have been issued. World is targeting 50 million by the end of the year.
The Orb: Gateway to World ID
Verification starts with the Orb: a chrome sphere that scans your iris and face to confirm you're a unique, living human.
Why the iris? World claims it's the most unique, privacy-respecting biometric — more stable than fingerprints and harder to fake.
Your scan generates a code that never leaves the Orb. What’s stored on-chain is just a cryptographic proof of your uniqueness, not your identity.
Data is processed using AMPC (anonymized multi-party computation), then encrypted and split across servers at places like UC Berkeley.
Orbs are now deployed in 46 countries, including five major U.S. cities. Verification is free and rewarded with WLD tokens.
World App: The Applications
World App holds your ID, crypto, and gives access to 230+ mini apps — from World Chat (a messaging/payments app) to a @MorphoLabs integration.
Most traffic on World’s L2 comes through this app hub.
World Chain: The Infrastructure
World Chain is the Layer 2 that underpins it all. Verified users get priority blockspace and gas fee subsidies. Unverified actors are deprioritized.
Since its October 2024 launch, it’s become the #2 L2 by daily transactions — second only to Base.
The WLD Token
WLD is the network’s token — and its most debated component. Of the 10 billion total supply, only 1.53 billion are in circulation — just 16%. Heavy dilution risk remains.
Within the system, WLD is used for payments, user incentives, and possibly future UBI, though that’s still vague.
It’s also seen as the only liquid way to bet on Altman’s AI empire, since OpenAI remains private.
📱 Strategic Positioning: OpenAI's Missing Layer
AI companies are racing to build full-stack systems. Meta is embedding AI into WhatsApp and Instagram. X has Grok. Perplexity has a Telegram bot. But none can verify if their user data is actually human.
If OpenAI’s social platform is real, World could plug this gap. World ID would distinguish humans from bots. The rest of the stack — World App, World Chain, and WLD — could turn the platform into more than just a social feed.
World Chain enables payments, app incentives, and token-based interactions
World App serves as the frontend, with hundreds of mini apps
WLD aligns incentives and keeps the ecosystem moving
This stack could give OpenAI access to clean, human-verified data for model training.
Zooming out, OpenAI’s challenge is making sure training data comes from real people — not bots. World offers an answer: ID for verification, Chain for infrastructure, App for interaction, and WLD for alignment.
It would make World not just a plug-in but a vertically integrated system powering OpenAI’s social layer.
But that same integration raises concern. One founder controlling identity, AI, and payments brings up questions around privacy and centralization.
Still, in the race to build AI-native social platforms, World may be the only one solving the core issue: proving the user is human.