World’s latest phone-sized updates throw doubt on future of big shiny Orb

World has made much of its Orb hardware device, a spherical iris scanner that seems to consciously nod at dystopian science fiction. But it appears to be moving slowly away from the Orb – which it openly admitted was designed as an attention-getter. A recent announcement unveiled the Orb Mini, which turns out to be shaped (and built) a lot like a smartphone.

World’s latest evolution suggests that the big round eye is indeed just a shiny bauble, and that sooner rather than later, it aims to have its technology fit into the average mobile device. A post from the company on X introduces the new Deep Face Mini App pilot: “on the spot confirmation that the person you’re speaking with is a real human, and not a deepfake.”

Deep Face is World’s deepfake detection product, which uses face authentication through World ID. Now, with the pilot, “anyone can create a Deep Face request in World App” (although “to respond to a Deep Face request, you need World App and an Orb-verified World ID”).

World ID’s October 2024 update was already pointing to the smartphone, noting that, “to help bring World ID access to the millions of people who haven’t yet had a chance to verify at an Orb, World ID 3.0 introduces World ID Credentials, a new way to enable the World Network to scale and add utility even faster.”

This enabled World ID holders to optionally store information from their physical NFC-enabled passports in World App on their device, then use World ID for anonymized proof of age, nationality and unique passport ownership.

While it appears to be scaling down the size of its hardware, World continues scaling up its user base across its various interests, and its tech ecosystem. A post says World Chain “now provides priority blockspace for 13 million verified humans,” and announces that Priority Blockspace for Humans (PBH) is now live on World Chain mainnet, “representing a major milestone in the path to building a blockchain for the real human network.”

World describes PBH as “a new mechanism implemented in World Chain’s block building logic that reserves a portion at the top of each block’s space for transactions sent from verified humans. Where bots create congestion, PBH provides a priority lane for real humans.” It works effectively like a VIP lane, clearing the way during periods of congestion in the blockspace for “real humans” to “continue interacting with core onchain services like proof of human verifications, Mini Apps, or grant claims without delay or disruption.”

PBH positions “humanness” as a “new dimension of transaction ordering.” It says the World Chain Builder is built on top of Reth, “a modern Ethereum execution client written in Rust,” and that it integrates with Rollup Boost.

World appears to be conceding that its Orb was just part of the show, and that such theatrics aren’t really necessary to win the hearts and minds of the masses (and could even be a putoff). However, it could stand to learn the same lesson about its language, which still sounds alternately dystopian, megalomaniacal, painfully pretentious, and like a whole lot of blether.

Article Topics

biometric authentication  |  biometric liveness detection  |  biometrics  |  deepfake detection  |  face biometrics  |  iris biometrics  |  proof of personhood  |  World  |  World ID  |  World ID Orb