A few days ago, the world woke up to another internet invention, Worldcoin. In Kenya, Worldcoin headlined most mainstream media, with some of them reporting that most Kenyans are more than willing to screen their eyeballs for $49.90.
Worldcoin launched on July 24 as an iris biometric cryptocurrency, working to develop identity verification and foster widespread cryptocurrency adoption. According to Worldcoin’s official site, it aims to establish universal access to the global economy.
Worldcoin officially launched after three years of development. According to Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, who co-founded Worldcoin, if successful, Worldcoin will drastically improve economic opportunities and scale up reliable solutions to distinguish humans from AI while preserving privacy.
Worldcoin verifies human identity by scanning people’s iris to create personal and secure identification codes (world ID). Worldcoin then saves the codes on a decentralized blockchain, which the company claims cannot be duplicated to create false identities and commit fraud.
The eye-scanning device can capture a user’s iris, as it is as unique as fingerprints. Once Worldcoin captures your WorldID, you can use the World app to verify yourself. The app functions as a crypto wallet, although its primary purpose is to store your credentials so that you can verify yourself when accessing third-party applications.
Worldcoin, in a report, stated that it had received over 2.1 million signups in over 30 countries, most of which were registered during its trial period. But even with its publicized popularity, Worldcoin has raised data breach concerns by the German Data Watchdog.
