Sam Altman's World teams up with Coinbase to prove there is a real person behind every AI transaction
World said some estimates suggest agentic commerce could reach $3 trillion to $5 trillion by 2030, with agents accounting for up to 25% of U.S. e-commerce.
By Olivier Acuna|Edited by Aoyon Ashraf Mar 17, 2026, 3:00 p.m.
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What to know:
- World, an identity project cofounded by Sam Altman, has launched AgentKit, a toolkit that lets AI agents carry cryptographic proof they are backed by a unique human via the World ID system.
- By integrating with Coinbase and Cloudflare’s x402 protocol for stablecoin micropayments, AgentKit aims to make AI agents verifiable economic participants rather than suspicious automated traffic.
- AgentKit links multiple agents to a single verified person using zero-knowledge proofs and, for now, Orb-based biometrics, enabling platforms to cap usage per human and positioning World as a foundational identity layer for an AI-driven web.
As AI agents increasingly transact, shop, and act autonomously online — a market that can reach $3 trillion to $5 trillion by 2030 — a key issue comes into focus: how to verify that a real person is behind the activity.
Sam Altman–backed identity project World (formerly WorldCoin) says it has the solution.
On Tuesday, the company rolled out AgentKit, a developer toolkit that allows AI agents to carry cryptographic proof that they are backed by a unique human, using its World ID system. The product works with x402, a protocol developed by Coinbase and Cloudflare that enables “agentic payments” by embedding stablecoin micropayments into the internet’s communication layer so AI Agents and software can pay each other without human intervention.
“Payments are the ‘how’ of agentic commerce, but identity is the ‘who,’” said Erik Reppel, head of engineering at Coinbase Developer Platform and founder of x402. “This is a massive step toward a web where agents aren’t just seen as automated traffic, but as legitimate economic participants.”
The move comes as AI agents are rapidly evolving, handling time-consuming and often frustrating tasks from booking reservations to surfing e-commerce marketplaces for the best deals. Some estimates suggest agentic commerce could reach $3 trillion to $5 trillion by 2030, with agents accounting for up to 25% of U.S. e-commerce, World said.
Coinbase founder Brian Armstrong said he believes “very soon” there will be more AI agents than humans making transactions. Binance founder Changpeng Zhao went further, predicting agents will make one million times more payments than people, “and they will use crypto.”
The missing piece
However, as the agentic commerce market expands, its widespread use creates a problem that payments alone cannot solve: identity.
“One person could run thousands of agents that all pay small fees,” said DC Builder, a research engineer at the World Foundation. “Proof of Human addresses this gap.”
The World spokesperson explained that AgentKit addresses this by linking multiple agents to a single verified human, which allows platforms to impose limits at the identity level.
“AgentKit allows developers to link multiple agents to the same verified human,” the spokesperson said. “This means a platform can allow someone to run several agents while still enforcing limits based on the underlying person.”
That could enable services to cap usage, such as one free trial or a fixed number of bookings per day per human, regardless of how many agents are deployed, the spokesperson added.
Another problem with agentic commerce is that most websites treat automated traffic as suspicious and even block bots outright. That approach, designed to stop abuse, is increasingly at odds with a world in which legitimate software agents are gradually acting on user's behalf.
AgentKit allows users to delegate their World ID, a privacy-preserving proof that they are a unique human, to AI agents acting on their behalf. And World is positioning this not as a replacement for other identity systems, but as a foundational layer.
“This isn’t necessarily an either-or choice,” a World spokesperson told CoinDesk. “World ID is designed to be a proof of human layer that developers can use on their own or alongside other identity systems.”
The system uses zero-knowledge proofs so platforms can verify that an agent represents a real person without collecting or storing personal data, a design World claims is required for scaling identity in an AI-driven web.
Beyond Orb verification
AgentKit, which is currently in beta version, relies on Orb-based biometric verification, the World’s most controversial component.
But the company says it plans to expand the system to include additional credentials. That will include NFC-enabled passports and IDs via “World ID Credentials,” allowing users to prove attributes about themselves without revealing personal information.
“Beyond the beta, we plan to expand AgentKit alongside the next generation of the World ID protocol,” the spokesperson said.
With the world’s real-time human verification meter reading at 17,912,203 at the time of writing, its networks rank among the largest proof-of-personhood globally. It also makes their broader ambition clear: to become the identity layer for an internet increasingly populated not just by people, but by the AI agents acting on their behalf.
Read more: Visa is ready for AI agents. So is Coinbase. They're building very different internets
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Ethereum Foundation’s new mandate sparks debate about its role, priorities
By Margaux Nijkerk|Edited by Sheldon Reback23 hours ago
The document quickly sparked debate across the Ethereum community, with supporters saying it reinforces the network’s core principles. Critics, however, argue the mandate signals the foundation intends to take a backseat just as institutional interest in blockchain is accelerating.
What to know:
- The Ethereum Foundation released a new 38-page mandate outlining its role as a neutral steward focused on maintaining Ethereum’s decentralized infrastructure and supporting public goods rather than directing the ecosystem.
- The document quickly sparked debate across the Ethereum community, with supporters saying it reinforces the network’s core principles — including decentralization, open-source development and credible neutrality — while clarifying that the foundation is not meant to build products.
- Critics, however, argue the mandate signals the foundation intends to take a backseat just as institutional interest in blockchain is accelerating, raising concerns that Ethereum may need stronger coordination to compete with rival networks.
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