Tools for Humanity is taking significant steps to enhance its World App, evolving from a focus on digital identity and cryptocurrency transactions to a comprehensive super-app containing encrypted messaging and financial services.
The latest update introduces World Chat, featuring end-to-end encryption and allowing users to differentiate between verified and unverified World ID accounts. This new messaging service enables users to send or request digital assets within their conversations.
Per an announcement, the app now accommodates third-party mini-apps, which can provide functionalities like prediction markets, games, and other financial instruments within chat threads. Furthermore, the company intends to implement optional profile photo verification to mitigate impersonation risks.
These updates were unveiled in San Francisco on Thursday by co-founders Sam Altman and Alex Blania.
Image of Sam Altman and Alex Blania
Sam Altman and Alex Blania. Source: Tools for Humanity
The World App has broadened its support for stablecoins, now enabling transactions with USDC, EURC, and various tokens linked to Latin American pesos. Users can also access yield products promising rates up to 18% on Worldcoin holdings and 15% on USDC, using the DeFi protocol Morpho.
In Argentina, users can utilize QR codes to make payments at over a million merchants.
This update also introduces US dollar virtual accounts powered by Bridge in 18 countries including the United States, Japan, and various Latin American markets, allowing users to receive salaries, fund app accounts, and spend USDC directly from the application.
Tools for Humanity spearheaded the creation of the World Network and oversees the operational aspects of the World App. The platform, previously known as Worldcoin, serves as the digital identity and financial infrastructure of Tools for Humanity.
The Rise of Super Apps in the United States
The move aligns Tools for Humanity with a growing array of firms aiming to build super-app ecosystems in the Western market. After acquiring Twitter in October 2022, Elon Musk suggested that the acquisition was a crucial step toward his vision of an all-encompassing app called X.
A super app integrates social interactions, payments, commerce, and financial services in a single platform, a concept successfully deployed in Asia by popular services like WeChat. Today, numerous US companies are gradually integrating crypto, payment, and financial features as they strive toward their interpretations of a comprehensive app.
In October, Musk announced plans for X Chat, an independent messaging service intended to compete with Telegram and WhatsApp. Musk, who co-founded OpenAI alongside Sam Altman in 2015 and has had a contentious relationship with him since departing the organization in 2018, expressed on the People by WTF podcast his interest in developing a platform that serves as an all-inclusive app or website, drawing inspiration from China’s WeChat.
“There’s no real WeChat outside of China.”
In another indication of this trend, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase recently signaled its intention to transition toward a super app by rebranding Coinbase Wallet as the Base app, which unifies trading, payments, social functionalities, messaging, and mini-apps.
Moreover, Walmart’s banking application OnePay is set to introduce cryptocurrency trading and custody features later this year, beginning with support for Bitcoin and Ether. The app already provides various banking services and has branded itself as a US-style super-app.
