Sam Altman’s World collaborates with Coinbase to demonstrate human involvement in every AI transaction.

World has indicated that some projections estimate agentic commerce could achieve between $3 trillion and $5 trillion by 2030, with agents potentially representing as much as 25% of U.S. e-commerce.

Worldcoin co-founders Alex Blania and Sam Altman (Marc Olivier/Worldcoin)

What to know:

• World, an identity initiative co-founded by Sam Altman, has introduced AgentKit, a toolkit that allows AI agents to possess cryptographic proof of being supported by a distinct human through the World ID framework.
• By partnering with Coinbase and Cloudflare’s x402 protocol for stablecoin micropayments, AgentKit seeks to transform AI agents into verifiable economic entities rather than dubious automated traffic.
• AgentKit associates several agents to a single authenticated individual using zero-knowledge proofs and, for the time being, Orb-based biometrics, allowing platforms to limit usage per individual and establishing World as a core identity layer for an AI-based web.

As AI agents increasingly engage in transactions, shopping, and autonomous online actions — a sector projected to reach between $3 trillion and $5 trillion by 2030 — a significant concern arises: how to authenticate that a genuine person is behind these activities.

Sam Altman–supported identity initiative World (previously known as WorldCoin) claims to have the answer.

On Tuesday, the organization launched AgentKit, a developer toolkit that enables AI agents to hold cryptographic proof of being supported by a singular human, utilizing its World ID framework. The product operates in conjunction with x402, a protocol created by Coinbase and Cloudflare that facilitates “agentic payments” by incorporating stablecoin micropayments into the internet’s communication framework, allowing AI Agents and software to transact autonomously without human involvement.

“Payments represent the ‘how’ of agentic commerce, while identity denotes the ‘who,’” stated Erik Reppel, head of engineering at Coinbase Developer Platform and founder of x402. “This marks a significant advancement toward a web where agents are recognized not merely as automated traffic, but as authentic economic participants.”

This initiative arrives as AI agents swiftly progress, managing tasks that are both tedious and often frustrating, ranging from making reservations to exploring e-commerce platforms for optimal deals. Some projections indicate that agentic commerce may reach between $3 trillion and $5 trillion by 2030, with agents potentially comprising up to 25% of U.S. e-commerce, according to World.

Coinbase founder Brian Armstrong expressed his belief that “very soon” there will be a greater number of AI agents than humans executing transactions. Binance founder Changpeng Zhao went further, forecasting that agents will conduct one million times more payments than humans, “and they will utilize crypto.”

The missing piece

Nonetheless, as the agentic commerce sector grows, its extensive application brings forth a challenge that payments alone cannot address: identity.

“One individual could manage thousands of agents that each incur minor fees,” remarked DC Builder, a research engineer at the World Foundation. “Proof of Human addresses this void.”

A representative from World clarified that AgentKit resolves this by connecting multiple agents to a single authenticated human, enabling platforms to impose restrictions at the identity level.

“AgentKit empowers developers to associate multiple agents with the same verified human,” the representative stated. “This implies that a platform can permit an individual to operate several agents while still enforcing limitations based on the underlying person.”

This could permit services to set usage caps, such as one free trial or a restricted number of bookings per day for each human, irrespective of the number of agents utilized, the representative added.

Another challenge faced by agentic commerce is that many websites regard automated traffic as suspicious and may even block bots entirely. This approach, intended to prevent misuse, increasingly conflicts with a reality where legitimate software agents are progressively acting on users’ behalf.

AgentKit enables users to delegate their World ID, a privacy-preserving proof of their unique humanity, to AI agents operating on their behalf. Furthermore, World aims to position this not as a substitute for other identity systems but as an essential layer.

“This is not necessarily an either-or situation,” a representative from World informed CoinDesk. “World ID is crafted to serve as a proof of human layer that developers can deploy independently or in conjunction with other identity systems.”

The framework employs zero-knowledge proofs, allowing platforms to confirm that an agent represents a real person without gathering or retaining personal information, a design that World asserts is crucial for scaling identity in an AI-driven web.

Beyond Orb verification

AgentKit, which is presently in its beta phase, relies on Orb-based biometric verification, which is the most contentious element of World’s system.

However, the organization states it intends to broaden the system to include additional credentials. This will encompass NFC-enabled passports and IDs through “World ID Credentials,” enabling users to verify attributes about themselves without disclosing personal information.

“Following the beta, we aim to enhance AgentKit alongside the next generation of the World ID protocol,” the representative noted.

With the real-time human verification count standing at 17,912,203 as of this writing, its networks rank among the largest proof-of-personhood systems globally. This also clarifies their wider objective: to establish the identity layer for an internet increasingly populated not only by humans but also by AI agents acting on their behalf.

Read more: Visa is ready for AI agents. So is Coinbase. They’re building very different internets