A week after its formal launch on July 24, a new cryptocurrency initiative dubbed WorldCoin from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has claimed over 2 million sign-ups worldwide. The company behind the AI chatbot ChatGPT was OpenAi.
The usage of biometrics distinguishes WorldCoin from many other cryptocurrencies. Its unique sign-up procedure, which involves scanning irises, has raised concerns in nations like as France, Germany, and Kenya. India has at least 17 sign-up locations, the majority of which are in Delhi Metro stations in the NCR region, with a handful in Bengaluru. According to the WorldCoin website, the United States has ten sites, while Japan has three.
What exactly is WorldCoin?
“The Worldcoin protocol is intended to be the world’s largest identity and financial public network, open to everyone regardless of their country, background or economic status,” states its website.
The project has been in the works for the last few years and its stated aim is to provide a unique, verified identity for everyone. “Our aim is to enable universal access to the global economy. To help do this, we’re working to distribute a new digital token freely to billions of people, including those without a passport or legal identification,” it says.
Through what it terms a “World ID,” WorldCoin hopes to provide users with an account that only “real humans” may obtain. For this, a consumer has to sign up and undergo an in-person eye scan at specified places, where their irises would be scanned through a ball-like item called an ‘orb’. When the orb’s iris scan confirms that the individual is a genuine human, it generates a World ID for them.
The logic presented here is that biometric data would aid in distinguishing humans from AI systems and preventing ID duplication from the same person. According to WorldCoin, it can then be used as an ID in a variety of common apps, such as a Bitcoin wallet, without revealing the user’s identity.
The project is divided into three parts: a World ID or digital identity for “proving an individual’s unique personhood,” a Worldcoin token (WLD) that serves as its cryptocurrency, and a World App that allows “payment, purchases, and transfers globally using digital assets and traditional currencies.” It states that creating a World ID (through orb scanning) is not required for accessing the app or tokens. However, it provides certain incentives for doing so.
How do people sign up for WorldCoin’s World ID?
An eye scan is required to sign up for a World ID. As an incentive, WorldCoin has given away a certain quantity of its cryptocurrency for free, after which users can either sell it or wait for its value to rise. “Eligible verified users can claim 1 free WLD token per week with no maximum and the amount is consistent across applicable regions,” the website says.
According to the cryptocurrency exchange site CoinBase, one WLD is worth 0.57 rupees as of August 1, 2023. According to Reuters, Worldcoin’s debut would expand “orbing” activities to 35 cities in 20 nations.
However, according to certain sources, larger sums were previously offered in a few instances. According to a BuzzFeed News report from April 2022, during beta trials, several individuals in Africa and Asia claimed they were awarded up to $20 in WLD tokens. In response, CEO Blania told the media organization, “Quite surely, in some places, communication, marketing, all of those things, could have been clearer and better… And we will improve that.”
In the same month, MIT Technology Review reported that, at least initially during testing in areas like Indonesia, the Orb operators were engaged on a commission basis. This meant that the more people that signed up, the higher their commission.
Who is the owner of WorldCoin?
Tools for Humanity, based in San Francisco and Berlin, is the business behind WorldCoin. Alex Blania is its Co-Founder and CEO, and Altman is its Co-Founder. The company’s website just declares that it is a technology company that was founded to achieve a “more just economic system” and redirects visitors to the WorldCoin website.
Altman told Reuters that Worldcoin can assist address how generative AI technology will disrupt the industry, saying, “People will be supercharged by AI, which will have massive economic implications.”
He cited the concept of Universal Basic Income, which proposes that everyone, regardless of job status, get a monthly stipend. Altman believes UBI can help address income inequality since AI “will do more and more of the work that people now do,” and that using WorldCoin for it can help reduce duplication and fraud issues. Elon Musk, the billionaire industrialist, has previously proposed UBI as a way to protect against AI advancement.
What are WorldCoin’s data collecting and privacy concerns?
The WorldCoin website says that images collected by the Orb are “promptly deleted unless explicitly requested by the person signing up”. It also adds that in its place, a message comprising a numerical representation of the most essential aspects of the taken image remains, resulting in a unique individual code.
However, this has not persuaded certain regulators. According to a recent Reuters article, a German data authority has been probing the initiative “due to concerns over its large-scale processing of sensitive biometric data” since late last year.
According to Michael Will, President of the Bavarian State Office for Data Protection Supervision, the investigation is taking place under the European Union’s data protection standards because Tools For Humanity has a German subsidiary there. “These technologies are at first sight neither established nor well analyzed for the specific core purpose of the processing in the field of transferring financial information,” Will said.
The UK’s data regulator has also stated that it will investigate the scheme. The legality of the project’s biometric data collection “seems questionable,” according to France’s privacy watchdog.
In a July 28 press release, Kenya’s Office of the Data Protection Commissioner stated that those who sign up for it must ensure that they are duly informed about how their sensitive data could be used. It has called for “increased vigilance” for compliance with its data-processing law.