Sam Altman’s Iris-Scanning Startup Reaches Only 2% of Its Goal

Sam Altman’s ambitious—and often criticized—vision to scan humanity’s eyeballs for a profit is falling far behind its own expectations. The startup, now known simply as World (previously Worldcoin), has barely made a dent in its goal of creating a global biometric identity network. Despite backing from major venture capital firms, the company has reportedly achieved only two percent of its goal to scan one billion people. According to Business Insider, World has so far enrolled around 17.5 million users, which is far more than many initially expected for a project this unconventional—yet still vastly insufficient for its long-term aims.

World is part of Tools for Humanity, co-founded by Altman, who serves as chairman, and CEO Alex Blania. The concept is straightforward but controversial: individuals visit a World location, where a metallic orb scans their irises and converts the pattern into a unique, encrypted digital identifier. This 12,800-digit binary code becomes the user’s key to accessing World’s digital ecosystem, which includes an app marketplace and its own cryptocurrency, Worldcoin. The broader vision is for World to operate as both a verification layer and a payment identity in an online world increasingly swamped by AI-generated content and bots—many created through Altman’s other enterprise, OpenAI.

Although privacy concerns have followed the project since its launch, a few exp

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