Zoom, Bain and VanEck Adopt World's 'Proof of Human' Badges to Block Deepfakes

Zoom and several major financial firms, including Bain Capital and VanEck Funds, have begun rolling out World's "Proof of Human" verification badges to keep malicious bots and deepfakes out of high-stakes conversations, the company announced Sunday.

World, co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, builds a football-sized orb device that scans people's irises to create a tamper-proof "proof of humanity." The verification tool sits inside a broader suite of services called World ID.

"World ID for Zoom is designed to protect sensitive, high-stakes conversations by proving that a real and unique human is present. The integration uses cryptography to confirm that the person behind the screen is a verified human," World said in a statement.

How does the badge actually work on a call?

Participants who clear World ID's security hurdles appear on-screen with a small blue badge. The badge signals two things at once: the person is human, and they are who they claim to be. Companies decide when to demand that level of scrutiny and can reserve it for sensitive calls rather than every meeting.

The underlying technology is tied to the orb, which captures an image of the iris — a biometric identifier unique to every individual — and creates a permanent, tamper-proof identity record. World says the system avoids building a central database: advanced cryptography encrypts identities in a way the company itself cannot read. At verification time, users confirm their identity with their phone camera and an app that cross-checks against the encrypted orb record.

World's Chief Product Officer, Tiago Sada, compares consumer reaction to the orb to earlier biometric rollouts. Apple's Touch ID and Face ID eventually became trusted, convenient security features — but many people greeted them with suspicion at first.

Sada also noted the protocol runs on open source code anyone, including competitors, can use — a point aimed at privacy advocates uneasy both with the technology and with its ties to Altman.

"People understand you don't have to give Sam or any of us your photo … Everything is open source and auditable," Sada said. He added that World ID uses blockchain technology for decentralization and encryption, quipping: "I think 90% of the crypto space is BS, but 10% is profound."

What are the three tiers of verification?

The financial firms adopting the tool — Bain Capital and VanEck Funds among them — will keep orb devices in their offices to enroll employees who have never scanned their irises, a company spokesperson said. But not every check requires an eye scan. World ID offers three levels through its app:

• Proof of Attributes (lowest): verifies identity from scanned government documents.
• Proof of Presence: requires a selfie.
• Proof of Human (highest): requires the World app and a selfie checked against the biometric record registered with the orb.

The tiered structure reflects a broader shift: in a bot-dominated online world, proving you're human may become routine for video calls, dating apps and shopping alike.

What about agentic commerce?

Some large companies — notably Amazon and JPMorgan — have already started blocking bots outright on their sites. That guarantees human-only transactions, but Sada argues it will limit those companies' ability to compete in fast-growing agentic commerce.

World's answer: users can assign their verified status to a single, trusted agent under what Sada compares to a power-of-attorney arrangement. Merchants can then treat that agent as the user's alter-ego. Users can only assign credentials to one agent, not many.

World, formerly known as WorldCoin, isn't alone in the space. In August, Cloudflare announced an agent ID tool of its own plus a wallet built for agents to use. The products reflect an evolution in how the industry sees bots, according to Cloudflare Chief Strategy Officer Stephanie Cohen: long treated as a menace, they're now also viewed as a major business opportunity.

Whether "Proof of Human" badges gain real-world traction quickly remains an open question. But with bots proliferating at an ever-growing rate, identity verification looks set to become a permanent layer of digital infrastructure.