TFH’s Park Says World ID to Target Bots, Scalpers as Korea Push Focuses on Use Cases

Interview with Park Sang-wook, Korea country manager at Tools for Humanity

TFH steps up plans to integrate World ID with Korean companies

Focus on ticketing solution aimed at blocking bot-driven bulk buying

"Lead mainstream adoption of a proof-of-human layer"

Advances in artificial intelligence and automated bot programs are worsening scalping and bulk-buying in the K-pop concert and sports industries. Tools for Humanity, the developer of the blockchain-based proof-of-humanity project World (WLD), says it wants to address those chronic problems in South Korea’s ticketing market with World ID, a technology that verifies a person’s uniqueness.

Park Sang-wook, TFH’s Korea country manager, told Bloomingbit in an interview on June 18 that the company’s main priority in Korea this year is introducing Concert Kit, a tool designed to block bot-driven bulk purchases at the source and give real fans a fair chance to buy tickets. He said TFH is focused on building practical use cases for World ID.

Concert Kit is designed to prevent bot-based ticket hoarding, a longstanding problem in the concert and sports sectors. It does not replace existing ticketing platforms such as Ticketlink and NOL Ticket. Instead, it operates as a separate verification layer. When an agency or artist registers a designated fan allocation or certain ticket codes through Concert Kit, fans verify that they are real people through World ID and then receive a booking code. They then use that code to complete payment on existing ticketing sites. That allows agencies to filter out bots without overhauling their systems.

The product has already been tested globally. During a World event in April, the company blocked more than 100,000 bot requests and allocated tickets to 1,000 real fans, Park said. Rock band 30 Seconds to Mars also plans to use Concert Kit to distribute part of its ticket allocation to World ID users. TFH aims to secure at least one or two similar ticketing partnerships in South Korea by year-end, he added.

TFH plans to start with ticketing and expand World ID into other areas where service trust is critical. Drawing on global integration cases with Tinder and gaming brand Razer, the company is also broadening discussions with Korean businesses. Park said service integrations would give users a clearer reason to sign up for World ID. Creating more use cases through meetings with a wide range of Korean companies is one of TFH’s goals this year.

A partnership with a Korean business or career platform is also within reach. Park said advances in AI agents are making it increasingly important to determine who is a real human online. Collaboration with business and career platforms, where interaction with real people is central, would be a strong real-world use case for World ID, he said. TFH also plans to roll out a series of security tools for the AI era, including Deep Face, which is designed to detect deepfake video during videoconferences, and AgentKit, which distinguishes automated bots from human agents.

The company is also refining its offline strategy. In its early stages, TFH focused on expanding the World ecosystem by deploying Orb iris-scanning devices. More recently, it has shifted toward directly promoting the need for World ID by taking part in AI-related events such as Smart Tech Korea 2026. World Space Seoul, the project’s only flagship space in Asia, will also be developed into a venue where users can directly experience integration services with Korean companies.

World ID holders have now surpassed 18 million. Park said South Korea’s well-developed identity verification infrastructure means World ID is more likely to take hold as a complementary layer that adds trust to existing systems rather than replacing them. As AI and automation tools become more common in daily life, the value of infrastructure that can distinguish real humans will grow further, he said.