OpenAI’s Sam Altman is reportedly in talks with Visa to enhance World Wallet with cross-asset functionality. The collaboration aims to develop a sophisticated wallet strategy, enabling seamless cross-platform transactions with crypto, cards, and fiat currencies. Altman, known for his impact on the global AI landscape with ChatGPT, also leads Worldcoin (World)—a controversial Web3 project designed to offer ‘proof of personhood’ in response to the growing presence of AI and bots online.
Altman reportedly launched World Wallet alongside the Worldcoin project in July 2023. By integrating Visa, he aims to evolve it into an independent mini bank, enabling seamless financial transactions across multiple asset types.
“The plan is to build up a whole connected wallet strategy so that you can trade in all kinds of things, from FX to crypto, load to wallet, send to wallet, spend from card,” CoinDesk quoted a source familiar with the matter as saying.
As of now, there has been no official confirmation from Altman or Visa. Tools for Humanity, the company overseeing the World project, has also not commented on the development.
In October 2024, Altman’s Worldcoin project was rebranded as “World”. The initiative has faced criticism from several governments over its collection of eye scans for biometric verification. Designed to issue “World IDs,” the project aims to differentiate humans from bots while allowing users to interact online without sharing personal information.
Despite facing legal troubles in Brazil, Colombia, Spain and Germany among others, Altman has continued to grow the project. For instance, the World Chat app was launched earlier this month with the ability to facilitate crypto-based money transfers.
The CoinDesk report also noted that the World project is in talks with crypto card companies like “Rain”, that issues on-chain visa cards for Avalanche and Optimism among others.
Visa, the US-based card payments giant, has actively explored crypto-related services. It has partnered with Web3 firms like Transak and Wirex to enhance its crypto offerings and expand the use of crypto cards among global merchants. In 2022, Visa also experimented with enabling bill payments for services like phone and electricity via self-custodial crypto wallets.
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