One evening last month, a crowd of cryptocurrency enthusiasts gathered at an art gallery in downtown Manhattan. They were greeted by a scene from science fiction: at one end of the room was an open bar. Across from it stood a loose array of grey pedestals, arranged like a futuristic Stonehenge, each displaying a metal sphere about the size of a bowling ball.

The event was a launch party for Worldcoin, a cryptocurrency project created by Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, and the crypto company he co-founded, Tools for Humanity. As music thrummed in the background, guests congregated around the shiny orbs, which looked like a cross between a giant eight ball and HAL 9000, the rogue computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey.