World is a digital identity project co-founded by Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. On stage at Money20/20, the fintech industry’s main annual conference, on Sunday, October 18, 2026, co-founder Alex Blania officially presented World ID for banks and financial institutions. It is the first version of the protocol ever built around a specific sector.
The goal is to defend institutions against fraud and deepfakes powered by artificial intelligence, which have become increasingly realistic and increasingly dangerous. For now, no bank appears among the partners. Sunday’s presentation was a first step, but it will take time before World ID is actually deployed.
How World ID works
World ID is best understood as a kit bundling several technologies, none of them entirely new. First comes an identity wallet app, which stores and presents what the company calls Proofs — in other words, evidence that you are a real person. Then there is World ID for Zoom, which verifies that the person on the other end of a video call is not a deepfake. After a limited beta in April 2026, the tool is now available to everyone.
Finally, there is World ID for Agents, which allows those proofs to be delegated to an artificial intelligence agent. On Zoom, a small blue badge will flag participants verified through the Orb, World’s iris-scanning device.
Tools for Humanity, the company developing the project, has also joined Zoom’s software vendor program and wants to bring the technology to Zoomtopia and Cloudflare Connect. Why could this project matter so much? According to a Deloitte forecast, losses from AI-enabled fraud in the United States risk reaching $40 billion in 2027, up from $12.3 billion in 2023. Those numbers suggest a critical scenario is already under way and could get worse in the coming years.
The open questions around World
Potentially useful as the technology may be in preventing AI-powered scams, significant doubts remain. No banking institution is using the product yet, and the pricing for the package has not been disclosed.
The move, meanwhile, is part of a broader strategy aimed at finance. In September 2026, World launched World Money, a stablecoin payments app available in more than 150 countries.
For the time being, rather than a conquest of the banking sector, the project looks like a test phase in progress. The open question is whether banks — bound by strict rules on privacy and biometric data — will choose to rely on a system built on iris scanning.
Editor’s note
This article was originally published in Italian on money.it by Pasquale Conte on October 19, 2026 as «Come funziona World ID, il progetto di Sam Altman che punta a conquistare il settore finanziario». It has been translated and adapted for an international audience by the Money.it International desk.
