Sam Altman's World is Launching a Pilot Program that Will Pay Developers to Create "Mini-Apps" Using Its World ID Authentication System

Starting April 1 and running for three months, the company will distribute $300,000 to qualifying developers based on usage of their apps

Sam Altman's crypto startup is launching a pilot program that will pay developers who create "mini-apps" using its World ID authentication system.

The startup, which is currently in the process of changing its name from Worldcoin to World, will be distributing $300,000 over a period of three months starting April 1 to qualifying developers based on the usage of their apps.

World says top-performing developers could earn up to $25,000 per week. Payments will be made in the form of World's own token, which can be converted into other currencies.

World is known for its controversial orb-like device, which scans a person's iris to create a unique, encrypted digital code. Once created, the idea is that individuals can quickly and easily authenticate themselves on web services without needing to hand over any personally identifying information or having to input a password.

World sees this as a critical component in addressing the problem of bots and inauthentic content proliferating online. From a privacy standpoint, it could allow individuals to speak more freely on services like X without risking an authoritarian regime finding their identity and sending them to an ICE detention facility.

And as humans and bots become nearly indistinguishable, websites like Reddit will need a way to segregate the junk.

States like Utah are demanding that individuals verify their age to access mature apps, which has predictably stoked pushback from privacy advocates, but World ID would not solve that problem, as it only verifies humanness, not age.

However, World faces a "cold start" problem. In order for people to scan their irises, there needs to be a practical reason for doing so, like an app or service that requires it. But without iris scans, there is no reason for developers to make an app that utilizes them.

World's first attempt at addressing this was by issuing a cryptocurrency to new users who completed the iris scan. Now, it is aiming to onboard people with actual utilities.

World 3.0, the latest version of its mobile app, is being billed as a "super app" akin to WeChat in China, which is ostensibly a messaging app but includes a whole host of other features. World now includes Mini Apps, which it defines as "everyday apps optimized for real humans." They run directly within the World app and integrate with a user's World ID. There are over 150 mini-apps available today, ranging from games to lending and payment apps.

Business Insider spoke with one developer in Argentina who built a mini app called Credit that offers microloans to individuals in the country. Loans can range from as low as $5 up to $100.

Diego Estevez, the developer of Credit, says since World is inherently anonymous, he does not rely on traditional credit scores or other signals to issue loans. Credit is designed so that users can get access to increasingly larger loans as they make on-time repayments.

Estevez says Credit has issued 15,000 loans to date.

Getting people in poorer parts of the world online and into financial systems with a verifiable ID is a real problem, but what technology like World has to offer is always a double-edged sword. The company has faced controversy on numerous fronts.

It initially launched pilots in developing countries including Kenya and Brazil, where it recruited individuals to collect iris scans in small batches. The idea was to get the technology adopted in large numbers quickly.

But critics have said the practice is predatory, as these individuals may be desperate for the money, and regulators in several countries have banned World's activities. Some critics have noted that iris patterns appear to change as people age, which could pose a problem for World's biometric scanners over the long term.

And fundamentally, in a world where individuals are becoming increasingly hyper-aware of privacy concerns, especially as governments are increasingly monitoring and policing online activity, asking for intimate personal data is a hard sell.

World faces an uphill battle assuaging concerns that the technology could be abused to track people's activity and whereabouts. The current Trump administration has demonstrated a willingness to send people to ICE detention camps over lawful speech and will scan online activity to achieve its goals.

What is more, the U.S. government can compel the use of biometrics to unlock devices, like iPhones, using biometric data without violating the Fifth Amendment. In theory, it could ask an individual to present their iris to log into X or another service, and if the individual refuses, they could be detained.

However, World maintains that user biometric data is stored only on an individual's smartphone, and there is no way to link a World ID back to a person. World ID codes are "zero proof," meaning the cryptographic hash of a person's iris can generate a code to use online, like for logging into Reddit, but the code cannot be reversed to generate an iris. The code generated from an iris hash is the same each time,