Alex Blania

Alex Blania grew up in Germany.⁠[1]

In 2019 Blania and Sam Altman founded the technology company Tools for Humanity, with Blania as CEO and Altman as chairman; the company is headquartered in San Francisco and Munich. The two also founded the Worldcoin project, with Blania as its CEO.⁠[2][3]

Blania and the early team in Germany “designed and engineered the first prototypes of what would become the Orb,” the iris-scanning device used to verify that a user is a unique human.⁠[1][3]

On October 21, 2021, WorldcoinWorldcoinWorldcoin is a digital identity and cryptocurrency project launched in 2019 by Sam Altman, Alex Blania, and others. It uses an iris-scanning device called the Orb to confirm that a user is a unique human and issue a World ID, and it issues the Worldcoin (WLD) token; in October 2024 it was renamed World Network (World for short). Developed mainly by Tools for Humanity, the project has faced regulatory investigations, suspensions, or penalties over its collection of biometric data in Kenya, Spain, Portugal, Germany, South Korea, Brazil, Indonesia, the Philippines, Colombia, and elsewhere.Open the full entry made its public debut, with Blania presenting the project as its CEO; it had raised $25 million in a round led by Andreessen HorowitzAndreessen HorowitzAndreessen Horowitz (a16z) is a venture capital firm founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. It invests from the seed stage through the growth stage and provides operational support to its portfolio companies.Open the full entry at a $1 billion valuation, with participation from CoinbaseCoinbaseCoinbase is a U.S. operator of crypto asset trading platforms, founded in 2012 by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam, whose listed parent is Coinbase Global, Inc.; it went public through a direct listing on Nasdaq (ticker COIN) in April 2021 and joined the S&P 500 in May 2025. It provides crypto trading, custody, staking, and stablecoin-related services, launched USDC with Circle, develops the Ethereum layer-2 network Base, and acquired the crypto options exchange Deribit in 2025; its venture investing operates as Coinbase Ventures.Open the full entry, Reid HoffmanReid HoffmanReid Hoffman is an American entrepreneur, venture investor, author and podcast host, co-founder of LinkedIn, Inflection AI and Manas AI, and a partner at Greylock. A former PayPal executive, he has built and backed businesses in professional networking, artificial intelligence and drug discovery. His co-authored books include The Startup of You and Blitzscaling.Open the full entry, Multicoin and others.⁠[3]

Blania said the project grew out of discussions about universal basic income, arguing that “getting access to the internet economy will be much more important than is obvious at this point.” Explaining the choice of Ethereum, he said “BitcoinBitcoinBitcoin (common symbol BTC) is an open peer-to-peer electronic cash protocol, network, and native digital asset. Full nodes independently verify transactions and blocks according to the consensus rules; transactions are recorded as UTXOs, and blocks are organized into a public ledger through proof of work. Bitcoin is not issued or managed by any single institution, but using, holding in custody, and trading it still involve key, privacy, market, and legal risks.Open the full entry isn't scalable to billions of people,” and added: “It might be that we delay launch in the United States until we have more clarity around the regulatory environment here.”⁠[3]

When Worldcoin launched on July 24, 2023, Blania and Altman published the open letter “Introducing Worldcoin: A letter from Alex Blania and Sam Altman,” writing: “Worldcoin is an attempt at global scale alignment, the journey will be challenging and the outcome is uncertain.”⁠[4]

On October 17, 2024, Blania and Altman presented project updates at the “A New World” event in San Francisco and introduced the name World Network (World for short), with World Chain, World ID and Worldcoin as its three pillars. World ID holders and World App users numbered about 15 million at the time.⁠[5]

On April 2, 2026, the a16z YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry channel uploaded “How Bots, Deepfakes and AI Agents Are Forcing a New Internet Identity Layer | Alex Blania on a16z,” on how bots, deepfakes and AI agents are pushing the internet toward a new identity layer. Andreessen Horowitz had led Worldcoin’s 2021 funding round.⁠[6][3]

On October 18, 2026, Blania, as co-founder of World, unveiled World ID for banking and finance at Money20/20 in Las Vegas.⁠[7]

Tools for Humanity: Official website: https://www.toolsforhumanity.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[2]

World: Official website: https://world.org/ (opens in a new window).⁠[1]