Worldcoin: A Global Currency or a Privacy Nightmare?

Currency for All: Will Worldcoin Truly Be Money for the Masses?

If you haven’t heard, the creator behind ChatGPT is taking on the world of crypto

Worldcoin is a billion-dollar startup co-founded by Sam Altman - of OpenAI fame. The startup’s plan is to give its token for free in exchange for scanning a user’s iris. It hopes to use this method to rapidly expand around the world and build up its database of users.
The venture has succeeded in raising money from the who’s who of Silicon Valley ranging from Andreessen Horowitz, Khosla Ventures and Tiger Global.

Worldcoin is trying to solve for “proof of personhood”. That is establishing that an entity is a unique person by scanning the user’s iris to verify their identity. This is to ensure that that user is not a bot.

The technology being deployed for the iris scan is the Worldcoin orb. It’s a shiny, chrome-surfaced, melon-sized sphere which can take a detailed picture of a person’s iris in a matter of seconds.
Once the scan is complete, the individual is added to a database of verified humans, and Worldcoin creates a unique cryptographic hash or equation that’s tied to that person. The scan isn’t saved, but the hash can be used in the future to prove the person’s identity anonymously.

The company has a three-part mission — to create a global ID linked to the scan, a global currency and an app that enables payment, purchases and transfers using its own token, along with other digital assets and traditional currencies. A global currency that could for example, help people send money to their families overseas without paying middlemen or wire fees.

The project has the lofty goal of building an inclusive financial network as a global public utility. The aim is to deliver benefits, such as future currency drops as part of universal basic income programs which could help in offsetting job losses caused by AI.

However, it’s not all smooth sailing, the project has seen its share of negative coverage with privacy experts raising alarm bells over a crypto project having access to people’s biometric data.

With newfangled crypto projects coming and going and buzzwords such as inclusivity being thrown around, it remains to be seen whether Worldcoin has learned from the criticism of other moonshot projects such as Facebook’s Libra.

Will this be a pathbreaking technology which will lead humanity to a more equal society or just another disastrous project which could leak the biometric data of millions?