World, the identity company co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and formerly known as Worldcoin, announced on Friday that it is open-sourcing the protocol behind its World ID tool and launching a standalone World ID app, according to Axios. The company also disclosed new or expanded integrations with Zoom, DocuSign, Tinder, Okta, Shopify, Vercel and VanEck.

Axios reports that the announcement bundles together several previously introduced ideas — including AI agent verification tools and non-biometric sign-in options — as World attempts to expand its technology into more mainstream use. No new funding round or valuation figure was disclosed alongside the announcement, according to the Axios report.

What World Is Releasing

According to Axios, World has upgraded the World ID protocol and is open-sourcing it so that any application can integrate it as an authentication layer. The company is also launching a standalone World ID app where users can store credentials and use them to log into other services, the outlet reports.

Tiago Sada, chief product officer at Tools for Humanity — the company that develops World — told Axios that World ID is designed to function more like a CAPTCHA replacement than a traditional identity system. Sada said the protocol offers three tiers of verification: a selfie, a government-issued ID, or an in-person iris scan at one of the company's "orb" devices. Each integrating company decides which tier it requires, according to his comments to Axios.

When anything can be fake, you don't know who and what to trust.

That quote, from Sada, was provided to Axios as part of the company's pitch for why human verification is becoming more urgent as AI agents proliferate.

The Named Integration Partners

Axios reports the following partner use cases, based on information from World:

  • Zoom plans to integrate World ID to verify participants on video calls and guard against deepfake impersonation.
  • DocuSign is testing World ID to confirm that a real human — not a bot or compromised account — is behind a digital signature.
  • Okta and Vercel are working with World on tools to verify that a real human approved certain actions taken by AI systems.
  • Tinder is expanding a previous pilot from Japan to the United States, allowing users to verify that a real person is behind a profile.
  • VanEck is testing an in-office orb for employee verification.
  • World is launching a "Concert Kit" tool intended to help artists reserve tickets for verified humans and reduce bot-driven scalping.

DeepBrief was unable to independently obtain on-record comment from any of the named integration partners prior to publication. The business case for each partner, as described above, is drawn from World's framing as reported by Axios rather than from direct statements by the partner companies.

Context On Previously Announced Components

Axios explicitly flags that portions of Friday's announcement repackage prior disclosures. The outlet links to a March 2026 Ars Technica report on World ID's AI agent verification tools and to a World blog post on a non-biometric "World ID Passport" credential as examples of elements that predate the Friday bundle.

The Tinder integration is an expansion of a pilot that World previously ran in Japan with Match Group, according to a World blog post cited by Axios.

Adoption Figures And Critical Reception

World states that approximately 17.9 million people have signed up for World ID globally, according to figures on the company's website cited by Axios. The Wall Street Journal reported last month that roughly 1.1 million of those users are in North America, per the Axios article.

Axios notes that analysts have raised concerns about the program. The outlet cites a Forrester blog post that called the program "problematic on many levels" due to security and governance concerns. DeepBrief did not obtain fresh comment from an independent identity-technology analyst specifically addressing Friday's announcement.

Physical Footprint Plans

Sada told Axios that World will expand the number of orbs available in San Francisco, New York City and Los Angeles so that most residents in those cities are within roughly 5 to 10 minutes of one. Sada also said the company plans to bring its "orb-on-demand" service to San Francisco after piloting it in Argentina last year, according to Axios.

Sources: Axios AI+, "Sam Altman's 'proof of human' company pushes into mainstream services," April 17, 2026 — https://www.axios.com/2026/04/17/worldcoin-zoom-shopify-retail-partnership