One of the most compelling byproducts of USB Club was that it naturally functioned as a proof-of-personhood network. Login was secured through ownership of a physical USB device paired with TouchID, making it resilient to bots and resulting in more authentic media in the process.

Around four years ago, we worked with NFTs tied to USBs as keys to access a network we built. We quickly learned that convincing everyday people to set up a crypto wallet was much harder than getting them to buy a USB. The utility of the USB was more intuitive and tangible.

At the time, we weren’t aware that World was also working on a proof-of-personhood network — we were just creating in New York.

After meeting the team at Tools for Humanity – the Sam Altman company behind the World protocol – we had the opportunity to envision and build new experiences for them.

During our time there, we designed and built a device for World ID called the World Kiosk. Built for use cases like events or benefits access, it let people scan a QR code to verify their World ID and receive a receipt. We brought it to market by running an experience for verified attendees at a World event in Mexico City. The Kiosk distributed receipts redeemable as a free popcorn and drink voucher before the show began.

The Kiosk ended up being used 7× more than the Orb at that event and became one of the top uses of World ID that week. It proved a new primitive for World infrastructure—a bridge for World ID into the real world.

To kick things off, we began with problem discovery. Having recently visited the field in Argentina for FWB’s World Build program, we returned fresh with research insights.

A key moment we uncovered was this: after someone joins the network, it’s unclear how or where their World ID will be usable in the real world. When you enroll, you're given a unique World ID, verified through a scan of your eye’s iris. TFH built a device called the Orb to prevent fraud during this process. But after people enrolled, they’d often ask: “Now what?”

World gives each person a unique World ID by verifying their humanity through their iris, which is the most unique thing about you. Using a custom device called the Orb, it captures your iris, creates a secure code, deletes the image, and stores the proof on your phone. This enables a global, open-source protocol for proving you’re a real person – useful for accessing systems, services, and networks that depend on trust.

Not only does this help combat AI fraud and bots, it also equips people with a crypto wallet, laying the foundation for a universal basic income infrastructure.

We looked to familiar patterns in the real world to help bridge the gap for people encountering this unconventional device.

Take receipts—something almost everyone recognizes. These days, they’re often optional, but when someone chooses to keep one, it’s intentional. A receipt is proof that a real transaction happened.

Maybe it’s how you claim tacos at a food stand, a ticket to get in, or a balance slip from an ATM. Whatever the case, it’s a simple, tangible gesture that’s understood all over the world.

The receipt printer generates a dynamic QR code that can be scanned and verified with the World App. Once verified, the printed receipt can be redeemed at a participating merchant.

What makes this unique is that it can be programmed to allow a specific number of uses per verified human. For example, it could be set to allow two uses per week for two weeks.

The next step in this evolution is using cryptocurrency for everyday purchases. Companies like Block (formerly Square) are already enabling their point-of-sale systems to accept Bitcoin.

These are the early building blocks of a world where the cryptographic stack meets people where they are, through everyday, understandable use cases.

Finance and identity have always had a strong relationship. Your financial actions affect your identity, and vice versa.

For finance, Point of Sale (POS) systems were built to streamline the checkout process. For identity, the physicality of passports and IDs is now being replaced with computational authentication.

These are familiar symbols we recognize instantly. They’re so ingrained in our daily routines that we rarely stop to question them.

We’re seeing an emerging device category take shape:

The Point of Identity (POI) system – a device or experience designed to verify a person’s identity to enable access or establish trust within a network.

As these systems continued to converge, we developed a design language to harmonize World’s experiences both digitally and physically.

Named Bits to Mist, the design system was our way of showing that complexity doesn’t have to feel overwhelming. It can be graceful, legible – even beautiful.

This system was utilized and expanded upon by teams across product and marketing. The product team implemented the concept in onboarding resulting in positive brand sentiments around launch, while the marketing team incorporated it into their event design.

Verification has long been treated as a checkbox. We saw an opportunity to make it feel meaningful, a first step into a new kind of world, where the interface reflects the trust beneath it.

We also established the use of a circular display as a symbol – signaling that any device using World’s infrastructure serves as a portal into its ecosystem.

The worth of a device isn’t in what it is, but in where it lives and what it does there.

Airports gave us a context where identity, movement, and trust converge. People are already primed to prove who they are there – it’s routine.

In that context, World started to make deeper sense. Not just as a protocol, but as infrastructure: something that could eventually replace everything from passports to boarding passes.

The airline kiosk we designed wasn’t meant for deployment. It was a strategic artifact – a way to surface the future by placing World in a space that demands trust by default.

We see real promise in zero-knowledge proofs and the broader cryptographic stack that World represents.

As devices become more autonomous and self-serve with the rise of AI, what we choose to make – and how we make it – matters more than ever.

For the first version of this primitive, we chose real maple wood. It brings a grounded presence, moving away from the dystopian feel that often surrounds new technology. It communicates as an object, not just a machine or tool.

AI is reshaping the world, and with it, a new wave of objects are emerging. When the applied research team tried to describe our work, they called it “Advanced Concepts,” and the name stuck.

Whether it’s proof built into the cryptographic layer of a protocol or proof that something was physically made and it worked, it’s all present here.

World was a big idea. And it needed proof. We built a series of hardware prototypes to prove the product was real. Functional. Approachable. Technically and emotionally.

We made machines. But we were really building trust.

We believe in moving beyond renders. We want to touch, feel, hold, and interact with future objects – not just imagine them.

If you’re working on the future and need help bringing ambitious ideas into form, we’d love to hear from you. We build the first version that proves it works.