Sam Altman Launches Worldcoin Cryptocurrency to Gather Biometric Data
OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman has launched a new cryptocurrency called Worldcoin. At the project's inception, 25 tokens of the new cryptocurrency can be obtained for free, but to do so, individuals must undergo an eye-scanning process using a specialized device called Orb, as reported by Ars Technica.
Worldcoin, a startup founded by Sam Altman, has been successfully operational for three years and has attracted approximately $250 million in investments from giants like Andreessen Horowitz, Khosla Ventures, and Reid Hoffman. The project's main objectives are quite ambitious and include ensuring "global democratic processes" and distinguishing humans from artificial intelligence.
"Worldcoin could significantly expand economic opportunities, providing a reliable solution to differentiate humans from artificial intelligence on the internet while maintaining confidentiality," Altman stated on the project's website.
The Worldcoin team also claims that their system can facilitate the implementation of "Universal Basic Income" and "Financially Verified AI." This would mean that all individuals receive a certain level of income regardless of their work. However, the specific mechanisms for realizing these plans remain unknown at this time.
Worldcoin aims to place the cryptocurrency wallet (as well as part of their currency) on every user's smartphone, but for this, they must develop an identification method that allows unique determination of each person's identity.
The process of confirming a user's uniqueness starts with scanning their face and iris to verify their identity. Users need to look into the Orb camera lens for about 10 seconds and await a sound signal.
After this, the scan receives a unique iris number, which is checked against a massive database to ensure that the person is undergoing this procedure for the first time. If all is correct, the user is added to the database and receives 25 free Worldcoin tokens. During the project's testing period, from May 2021 to July 2023, over 2 million people from more than 30 different countries have successfully confirmed their World ID identifiers in Orb.