Worldcoin will no longer offer its orb verification service in India, Brazil and France, just months after the cryptocurrency startup expanded its helmet-shaped eyeball scanning device to those markets.
Tools for Humanity, the organization overseeing Worldcoin’s development, told TechCrunch in a statement that it expanded Orb to multiple markets this year for “limited access for a period of time.”
But the sudden decline comes as a surprise. Worldcoin has opened pop-up kiosks in many parts of India to welcome new users to the platform and He led the crowds As people lined up to register and collect free tokens. For months, founders of cryptocurrency startups in India have been complaining that Worldcoin is facing regulatory hurdles in the market.
Lily Gordon, spokesperson for Tools for Humanity, said Worldcoin remains committed to “working with partners globally to ensure it meets regulatory requirements and provides a safe, secure and transparent service to verified people.”
The orb, a five-pound color ball, scans an individual’s eyeballs and verifies their identity. The verification system is similar to India’s Aadhaar system, which uses biometric data to verify citizens’ identities. Worldcoin Shown Similarities in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, in July 2022.
“The multi-city tour kicked off in Tokyo in April 2023 and was the first time that people in multiple locations across North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia were able to experience the orb. It was the first time that people were able to experience the orb,” Lily Gordon, a spokesperson for Tools for Humanity, exclusively told TechCrunch in an email. Early this month: “The tour concluded in late summer and was also completed with previews of the orb in a number of cities globally along with the launch of the protocol.”
Worldcoin, co-founded by Sam Altman, began rolling out its services globally in July of this year to help build a reliable solution to “distinguish humans from AI online,” enable “global democratic processes” and “dramatically increase economic opportunity.”
The startup, which has raised about $250 million in total and whose backers include Andreessen Horowitz, Khosla Ventures and Reed Hoffman, said it was rolling out its identity technology as well as its token internationally. Individuals can download the World App, the startup’s protocol-compliant wallet software, and visit Orb, the startup’s helmet-shaped eyeball-scan verification device, to obtain their global ID card.
A document used by Worldcoin volunteers to create awareness about the program before onboarding customers. Image credits: TechCrunch
While Brazil and France were among the global offerings of Orb-verified services, Tools for Humanity has begun biometric verifications in India ahead of its global tour. TechCrunch understands that the organization has been hiring more contractors to expand the Orb-based verification process in Indian cities including New Delhi until October.
Although Orbs is no longer available in some markets, World App continues to attract people in India. The organization also recently updated its protocol to World ID 2.0 to differentiate between bots and “verified humans” and help developers build new integrations. It also announced World ID integrations with Minecraft, Reddit, Telegram, Shopify, and Mercado Libre — in addition to its existing support for Discord, Talent Protocol, and Okta’s Auth0.