In partnership with
A great week of client work, private dinner plotting and catching up with smart TBD+ers. A few useful upgrades inside TBD+, including a snazzy new member directory and richer profiles, making it easier to find the right person when you need them. All TNN are up and available to book now. October’s TNN with Helen Chapman, looking at what happens when longer lives collide with AI, work and a world designed around younger people is selling fast so get in quick. If you’re doing that thing they call ageing (aka everyone!), this one is a must attend to get ahead of what’s coming for us all.
Oh, and you might want to book this too.
Join Fin, Anthropic, and Clay at Pioneer on October 7th
Pioneer, the summit where CX leaders redefine what’s possible, is on October 7th.
Join leaders from Fin, Anthropic, and Clay for an insightful conversation on the state of AI transformation.
You’ll discover how some of the most innovative minds in CX have transformed their organizations, learn how they think about CX, and hear how they're planning for what's next.
Join the conversation in San Francisco, or tune in virtually.
SAM ALTMAN'S OTHER COMPANY JUST GOT MUCH MORE INTERESTING
BLUF: World Money isn't a global bank and most of what it does isn't new. What matters is World putting money, identity and proof-of-human in the same ecosystem just as AI agents starting to transact too. The interesting bit is the combination, not the crypto.
World, still best known as the company that scans eyeballs to prove people are human, launched World Money, a self-supervising app combining stablecoins (think digital casino chips), international transfers, trading, virtual accounts and ways to earn returns. They’re rolling out across 150+ countries, supporting stablecoins tied to eight currencies and using Stripe and Bridge for some of the underlying infrastructure. The 150+ countries bit does deserve an asterisk as features vary significantly by jurisdiction, some of the more bank-like services are only available in certain markets and World Money remains a crypto product rather than a bank. Those calling it a Revolut competitor are getting ahead of what’s actually launched.
The interesting bit is what World joins together. Previously it was just World ID to answer an increasingly useful question: is there actually a human on the other side? World Money puts financial services alongside that identity network, with existing verification carrying across and Orb-verified users getting enhanced rewards on some products. Mini Apps from Kalshi, Morpho and others push it further towards becoming a platform. None of this means an iris scan is suddenly required to move money, but putting biometric proof-of-human alongside stablecoin payment rails isn’t a trend I would bet against long-term with the way things are going and considering Altman controls OpenAI. If AI is the problem, World ID could be argued is a solution. Anyone seeing an issue with that is paying attention.
World now has proof-of-human, blockchain infrastructure and financial services sitting increasingly close together. An internet full of AI agents able to communicate, buy things and move money makes distinguishing humans from machines considerably more valuable. Connecting biometric verification and financial activity also raises serious privacy, regulatory and trust questions (shocker!), while self-custody and crypto remain barriers for mainstream users. World Money isn't particularly remarkable as a financial app today but the bet underneath it is. Proving you're human could eventually become part of the infrastructure for moving money when humans aren't the only things transacting online.
+ DO
Watch what World connects to World ID next. World Money matters less for what it can do today than whether proof-of-human starts becoming useful for payments, marketplaces and AI-agent transactions. Also watch where the promised 150+ country footprint turns into genuinely useful local financial services.
× DON'T
Call World Money a bank, assume everyone gets the same features, or mistake geographic availability for adoption. Most of its individual features already exist elsewhere. The interesting part is whether World can make identity + money + proof-of-human into something people actually want, without the privacy and regulatory problems overwhelming the proposition.
SOZ. CAPITALISM.
TBD+ members get the entire issue which includes the tech wrap, off the clock and for your eyes only sections. £500/year (two months free) or £50/month
Start Monday ahead →TBD+ membership also includes:
- The full version of C_NCENTRATE every Sunday
- Two TNN tickets a month, the breakfast salon with speakers from Meta, Bloomberg, LinkedIn (sponsored by Box.com)
- Full access to the TBD+ community (desktop, iOS + Android)
- The TBD+ Black Book, the trusted contacts and resources members actually use
- Analysis and insights nobody else has, plus every North Star Interview and Mouthwash episode first