Former Orb Operator Says World ID Needs Clear User Value

Alejandra Corbella, an early World Orb operator in California, says people were more receptive to World ID when outreach explained a practical benefit and addressed privacy concerns.

Corbella said she began operating an Orb in July 2023, when the project was still called Worldcoin, and completed 100 verifications in San Francisco. Some people arrived curious about the device; others asked why an iris scan was necessary or how their information would be handled, she said. Technical explanations alone did not answer what users stood to gain.

Tools for Humanity later hired Corbella to lead community expansion in five U.S. cities, she said. Over 10 months, she organized more than 40 in-person activations. Corbella described her approach this way: “I’m not pitching.”

World describes World ID as a way to show that someone is a unique human online. The company says Orb verification uses images of a person’s eyes and face, then sends the images and encrypted fragments to the person’s phone before deleting the images from the Orb. World also says zero-knowledge proofs let users demonstrate they have a valid World ID to a service without revealing their identity.

The project changed its name from Worldcoin to World in October 2024. Its U.S. rollout began May 1, 2025, in Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville and San Francisco. On April 17, 2026, World announced that its Tinder integration would expand to the United States and introduced Concert Kit, which lets artists reserve tickets for verified humans.

World’s Oct. 18 update said more than 18 million people held a Proof of Human and that proofs had been presented more than 475 million times globally. The totals do not specify U.S. holders or use on individual services.