If successful, its "Big Hairy Audacious Goal" (BHAG) will bring about a magnitude of growth potential.
Authors: Cosmo Jiang, Cody Poh
Compiled by: Deep Tide TechFlow
We have been exploring how blockchain can integrate into a world rapidly adopting AI, where "Proof-of-human" is a prominent area. In a future where AI agents and AI-generated content become increasingly prevalent, distinguishing between humans and robots will become an urgent necessity. For many scenarios, we may accept or even prefer interacting with robots. However, in critical areas such as advertising, dating, or government services, certifying the unique identity of real humans becomes particularly important. Using permissionless blockchain to verify online "humanity" in a global and censorship-resistant manner is undoubtedly one of the best options.
World (formerly Worldcoin) is a blockchain protocol that builds a privacy-preserving global identity and financial network through the concept of "Proof-of-human." "Proof-of-human" means proving that a person is both human and unique. World certifies users as unique real humans through iris scans conducted by its biometric device, the "World Orb," and issues a World ID to each user on its blockchain, Worldchain. This technology, developed by Tools For Humanity (TFH), is being promoted globally. The native token of the World protocol, WLD, is designed as a global internet currency and is used for protocol governance.
OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman is also a co-founder of World. His motivation for founding World was to maintain human uniqueness and core status in an internet world filled with AI-driven content. If World achieves widespread adoption, it will provide a scalable and reliable global solution for distinguishing real humans from AI while protecting user privacy. This capability has far-reaching implications, not only expanding economic opportunities but also promoting global democratic processes.
Since our investment last year, we have had the privilege of meeting with Sam Altman, TFH CEO Alex Blania, and team members. World held its latest public event on April 30, providing investors and industry professionals with an in-depth introduction to its product roadmap and growth strategy. Based on this, we believe it is an excellent time to share our investment logic and look forward to the exciting developments ahead.
Investment Logic Overview
We believe that World’s "Proof-of-human" solution will become critical infrastructure in a future where humans coexist with AI. Our investment logic is primarily based on the following reasons:
Proof-of-human as a Key Tool: With the surge of autonomous AI agents and AI-generated content, verifying unique human identities is crucial for commercial and governmental applications. In extreme cases where AI-driven productivity may replace human labor, governments may need to implement Universal Basic Income (UBI) programs, and "Proof-of-human" will become an indispensable tool.
Superior Verification Solution: World’s biometric solution, combined with blockchain technology, surpasses existing government and private identity verification systems as it transcends jurisdictional boundaries and possesses censorship resistance.
Early Signs of Growth: Since its establishment less than two years ago, the World protocol has certified over 12 million unique individuals. Adoption of Worldchain also shows strong growth, with approximately 45,000 new wallets created daily.
Experienced Leadership: World benefits immensely from the involvement of OpenAI founder Sam Altman. Altman’s global influence and reputation are powerful tools for building trust with international government agencies and facilitating strategic collaborations.
World’s vision is not only a technological innovation but also a profound reflection on the future social structure. At the intersection of AI and blockchain, it may become a key bridge connecting humanity and technology.
World ID Application Scenarios and Potential
We believe that "Proof-of-human" is crucial for many application scenarios, and World ID may have significant potential in scalable commercial applications. Particularly in the fields of advertising and government services, World ID can bring substantial benefits. Considering the scale of these end markets—advertising is a trillion-dollar market, and government services account for 25% of the U.S. GDP—even a small value addition through unique human identity solutions represents a tremendous growth opportunity for World.
In the short term, World has identified gaming, dating, and social networking as three core application scenarios, significantly enhancing user experience by distinguishing unique humans from robots. The protocol has established partnerships in these areas:
Gaming: Razer is collaborating with World to launch Razer ID to verify real player identities, enhancing fairness in competitive gaming. Razer ID will debut in the game "Tokyo Beast" in the second quarter of 2025.
Dating: World recently announced a partnership with global online dating leader Match Group, allowing users to verify their profiles through World ID. This initiative aims to reduce bots and fake accounts, enhancing user safety and trust.
Social: World has launched World Chat in the World App, helping verified individuals connect and communicate safely. World is currently negotiating partnerships with several major social media platforms.
Advertising: Japan's second-largest marketing agency, Hakuhodo, plans to utilize World ID to establish a fraud-proof advertising network aimed at eliminating bot-driven ad fraud.
World’s Mini App ecosystem plays a crucial role in unlocking new possibilities and application scenarios for World ID. Currently, there are over 300 Mini Apps on the World App, all of which can leverage World ID and the World App wallet to facilitate creative experimentation and concept validation. While the potential for future application scenarios has not been fully developed, early experiments show promising prospects:
Kalshi: A prediction market Mini App that allows verified humans to bet on real-world events. As more verified users participate, the platform's credibility increases, creating deeper and more diverse markets that help the public better understand popular opinions.
Aqua: This Mini App uses World ID to measure online interactions of verified humans, ensuring that content creators are compensated based on real user interactions rather than bot activity.
Worldle: A Wordle competition Mini App where verified humans can bet and compete against each other.
The construction of World Chain itself provides unique advantages for verified humans. The gas fees for verified humans are subsidized by fees collected from non-verified humans (i.e., bots), ensuring that humans benefit from the increased commercial activity generated by on-chain agents.
Distribution Strategy
World is a network, and the value of a network increases with the number of users. Currently, World’s network is still in its infancy, with only 12 million verified users, making user acquisition a top priority. The free token incentive mechanism is similar to PayPal's early "10-dollar growth hack" strategy. However, since initial verification requires face-to-face identity authentication, the current bottleneck is actually the physical distribution of devices. To scale World to the next 100 million users, the key lies in enhancing the scalability of Orb device manufacturing and cross-jurisdictional distribution.
To achieve this, World is accelerating the production of Orbs, aiming to make its devices as ubiquitous and accessible as ATMs. The team has developed a self-service Orb that users can operate independently without staff assistance, enabling global large-scale deployment and reducing operational costs. At the same time, World is developing a more portable verification device, Orb Mini, which resembles a smartphone. Orb Mini is expected to be deployed in 2026 and is anticipated to be a key tool for expanding the network user base to over 100 million.
After driving verification through physical distribution and economic incentives, the next challenge is to improve user retention by building actual application scenarios. Expanding World’s Mini App ecosystem is crucial for user growth and engagement. To date, the World App has been downloaded over 55 million times, and this ecosystem is gradually becoming the foundation for users' daily interactions, providing scalable leverage for accelerating user acquisition. We are beginning to see the emergence of some interesting applications across various fields, from DeFi to gaming to social media.
We believe that the launch in the U.S. this year is a key growth unlock. World announced its launch in the U.S. in May, initially covering six cities (Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, and San Francisco). World plans to deploy 7,500 Orb devices in the U.S. by the end of 2025. They also expect to provide World devices in high-density shopping locations nationwide through marketing campaigns with retail partners.
World aims to verify 50 million people by the end of this year, with the long-term vision of signing up every unique human. You can find nearby scanning locations here.
Additionally, World recently launched its first commercial advertisement in the U.S., titled "Human and You Know It." You can check out the advertisement content.
Government Relations
Many still believe that World circumvents privacy laws and government regulations, but the reality is quite the opposite. This misunderstanding stems from past regulatory actions. Cautious government regulators have challenged World’s expansion, requiring it to pause operations in certain regions, such as Hong Kong, Kenya, Spain, and Portugal.
In recent years, the regulatory attitude has changed positively. This shift is attributed to several factors, including TFH (The Foundation for Humanity) strengthening education and communication with local governments, as well as the accelerated adoption of artificial intelligence, which has led various sectors to recognize the need to learn and adapt to new world paradigms with an open mindset.
Recently, World has made significant progress in collaborating with local governments, particularly in rapidly digitizing Southeast Asian markets such as Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia. Before entering these markets, World actively engaged with government officials to ensure they fully understand the platform's technology and its embedded privacy protection measures. To meet regulatory requirements for data privacy and storage, World has assembled a top-notch legal and public policy team.
A successful example is the collaboration between World and the Malaysian government service provider MyEG. MyEG provides offline services such as driving license exams, identity card applications, and renewals. By partnering with MyEG, the Orb verification service has been integrated into its existing government infrastructure, demonstrating World’s ability to embed technology into government services and setting a precedent for future similar collaborations.
Commercialization and Potential Growth
At an event called "At Last," World began to outline its plans for the commercialization of World ID. At the most basic level, revenue sources include transaction fees on World Chain. Additionally, World ID service fees will be introduced, which will be charged to applications using World ID services. The fees are divided into two parts: Credential Fees, retained by the credential issuer; and Protocol Fees, which belong to World ID. As foundational investors, we are excited about the value accumulation plan announced by World, as it indicates that the World protocol successfully creates excess value for its stakeholders.
With reasonable assumptions, a compelling investment case can be constructed. If World can verify 5 billion unique users (approximately 60% of the global population), and each verified user can generate $5 in revenue per year, then the protocol would achieve an annualized revenue of $25 billion. This $5 represents less than 0.005% of the global per capita GDP, and considering the widespread application of World technology in massive markets like advertising, such a proportion is reasonable.
At a reasonable growth multiple, this $25 billion in annualized revenue, combined with an almost 100% free cash flow conversion rate, has the potential to drive a market capitalization exceeding $250 billion. These figures demonstrate the commercialization potential of World ID on a global scale and its significant market value in the future.
Conclusion
We are confident in the developments that the World team is advancing. The protocol uniquely addresses the critical challenge of verifying unique human identities in the rapidly evolving era of artificial intelligence. This opportunity is particularly timely, coinciding with a shift in government attitudes toward digital identity, World’s recent entry into the U.S. market, and the increasing widespread application of World ID in various regions and diverse scenarios.
Of course, there is still a long way to go from the current state to realizing World’s long-term vision. Questions remain regarding whether the protocol can scale quickly enough, the effectiveness of its growth incentive mechanisms, and the reflexive effects of its volatile cryptocurrency. Additionally, World is not the only entity recognizing the importance of "human identity"; most large tech companies are also developing their own identity solutions. While decentralized and censorship-resistant solutions are theoretically superior, this does not guarantee they will prevail in practice.
As artificial intelligence becomes more prevalent, there is a growing recognition of the significance of World’s mission to build a robust and secure identity verification solution, which is worth striving for. The Wall Street Journal and Time magazine have both featured World in special reports over the past few months, highlighting its important role in the context of increasingly prevalent and indistinguishable AI agents, particularly in the fields of payments and social networking. BlackRock has also reiterated the strategic importance of "human identity verification" in its annual shareholder letter, especially in the context of the growing on-chain economy and asset tokenization.
Although World’s development is still in its early stages, there is no doubt that it is led by an exceptional management team chaired by Sam Altman. If successful, its "Big Hairy Audacious Goal" (BHAG) will bring about a magnitude of growth potential. Looking ahead, we anticipate continued progress from World in geographic expansion, strategic partnerships, and strong growth in the Mini App ecosystem. As investors in this protocol, we feel incredibly excited and honored.
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