After ChatGPT became popular around the world, the crypto project Worldcoin founded by Sam Altman returned to the public eye. This project was born 2 years ago. At that time, OpenAI, which was immersed in iterating on GPT models, was not so well-known, and the company's CEO Sam Altman was also among the tech giants.
Worldcoin, which was a pure crypto project at the time, attracted various doubts from birth, among which the vision of "achieving universal basic income" sounded like it was to "send money" to the earthlings, and this "pie in the sky" was once suspected of fraud because of the delay in issuing coins.
Today, ChatGPT, OpenAI are world-famous, Ultraman's Worldcoin comeback, proposed the concept of "human ID card" in the era of artificial intelligence, to unconditionally airdrop Worldcoin tokens for the whole people, in order to offset the unemployment caused by artificial intelligence. This is even more magical than "achieving universal basic income".
Against all kinds of doubts, Ultraman asked Worldcoin to find another $100 million to raise funds, and the project also launched the crypto wallet World App to the world. However, receiving "money" is not unconditional. Worldcoin is caught in the question of illegally collecting biological data of poor people.
Trade your iris information for "basic income"?
After 2 years of bleak cryptocurrency markets, Worldcoin, which is about to lift "billions of people out of poverty", is back on the Web3, this time, it comes out with the crypto wallet "World App".
Since the official version was launched on May 8, the World App, including the beta version, has received more than 1 million downloads, and the project partner Worldcoin has also issued a commemorative NFT for the launch of the wallet, with more than 60,000 holders.
Much of the reason why the wallet quickly sparked its installation stems from Worldcoin's expanding philosophy — from achieving universal basic income to offsetting the loss of unemployment caused by artificial intelligence. The implementation is "unconditional airdrop tokens".
In the cryptocurrency world, "tokens" once they appear in the secondary market, they mean that they can be monetized into money. The phrase "unconditional airdrop" is like telling you to "give you money unconditionally", and it is difficult not to make people think that "wool is not white". Now, the World App wallet is here, and the airdrop seems not far away.
The World App needs to scan the iris to register
Compared with the common Web3 wallet, in addition to being able to receive, send and purchase crypto assets with fiat currency, the World App mainly features a "World ID" function, claiming to allow each user to have their own "human passport ID" to achieve one person, one code. As long as you authenticate to that ID, proving that you are a human and not a robot, the World App will airdrop you a certain amount of Worldcoin tokens every month. With this token, you can buy your daily needs on the World App.
No matter which merchant will collect tokens for selling things, Worldcoin "money" is not unconditionally available.
Once you download the World App, you'll see that it's not as casual as other mobile apps. This is related to another feature of the app - it does not reveal any personal information. The way to do this is simple, because it simply does not collect regular personal information such as your email address, mobile phone number, and ID number.
If you don't collect it, you won't leak it, which is indeed a good way to protect privacy from the source, but if the user wants to register the client to "get money", what information to register?
The Worldcoin team's solution: hand over your iris.
The first device created after the establishment of the Worldcoin project in 2021 is called the iris biometric device Orb, whose main function is to capture images of the human eye and convert them into a unique IrisHash (a short string of digital codes), trying to ensure the uniqueness of personal IDs by scanning the human iris.
Iris biometric device Orb
Soon, Orb operators carried a billiards-shaped instrument to set up a "ground push" in some places, and whoever scanned their eyeballs against this instrument was eligible for Worldcoin tokens. The project first went to the world's underdeveloped countries and regions to start "sweeping", and tens of thousands of people were swept by these Orbs.
Why does Worldcoin have to use "iris", a highly expensive and "sensitive" authentication method to collect? Because, it wants to "send money" to the whole people. The project was founded in 2021 with an ambitious goal: to create a UBI (Universal Basic Income) system backed by a decentralized network to help an economy generate enough profits to distribute a portion of its money to its citizens unconditionally.
The idea of UBI is quite utopian, but Worldcoin has actually put it into practice, arguing that the prerequisite for implementing UBI is to create a reliable identity system to prevent "sybil attacks", that is, prevent one person from controlling multiple wallet addresses to profit. To do this, mobile phone numbers, mailboxes and other authentication methods that do not have uniqueness are not good, ID cards may also be fake, and the iris on the human eyeball is absolutely unique, compared with fingerprints, faces, the difficulty of forgery is relatively high.
Thus, Orb, who swept the eyes of the world, appeared.
However, the iris information collected by Worldcoin is actually personal biometric information like fingerprints and veins. In sovereign countries such as China and the United States, personal biometric information has been included in the scope of legal protection.
Now, the World App, which still needs iris certification, is coming, and if you want to register, you have to go to the Orb device to scan your eyes. Previous information showed that these devices are mainly distributed in twelve countries and regions in Africa, South America, Europe and Asia, and are operated by twenty-five operators. In October 2021, Worldcoin claimed to have 100,000 users.
Will you donate your iris to claim a token called Worldcoin? Don't worry, this token is not yet a shadow.
Against the voice of doubt, find another 100 million knives of financing
Due to Worldcoin's delay in issuing tokens, users who have been swept into irises believe that they have a "blank check" that cannot be cashed. Criticism began 2 years ago, when Worldcoin was accused of misusing biotechnology to violate user privacy, and then fell silent with the bear market in the cryptocurrency market.
After ChatGPT became the new favorite of the technology circle, the outside world suddenly found that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was actually one of the founders of Worldcoin, and the project also took advantage of this founder and the wave of AI to show a "recovery" trend.
In March, Worldcoin introduced a new background of artificial intelligence to the old concept of "universal basic income". The project posted on its official website that the era of artificial intelligence needs to establish "human identity authentication", and when artificial intelligence replaces most people's jobs, the establishment of a reliable human proof mechanism has become an important prerequisite for achieving universal basic income.
The World ID protocol appeared, the World App was born, Worldcoin tried to use the Web3 infrastructure three-piece set of DID, Token and wallet, plus biometric technology, to talk about a future artificial intelligence era of economic system "science fiction": a few years later, robots took on most of the human work, many people became a useless class, they can't find a job, in fact, they don't need to find a job, because everyone has a World App, a little bit to get money, Once basic needs are met, look for ways to create new value.
Worldcoin is the dream of "achieving universal basic income" into the future. At the end of 2021, Worldcoin announced that it would launch its mainnet in 2022 and plan to reach 1 billion users by 2023. Today, Worldcoin's mainnet launch plan has been postponed to the first half of 2023, reaching about 1.7 million users, which is far from the target.
Even with Sam Altman's endorsement, the project is difficult to feel "reliable" and has even attracted a lot of criticism.
First of all, how can the value of tokens issued to users as purchasing power be supported? Ari Paul, founder of crypto investment firm Block Tower Capital, pointed out that Worldcoin's core business model is to steal data from the world's poorest people, test it in a way that exploits the poor, and monetize it, "It's just a crime of stealing data from the poor through fraud." ”
Hudson Jameson, a former member of the Ethereum Foundation, questioned the fairness of the distribution of Worldcoin's tokens: 80% to the public, 10% to investors, and another 10% to the team, "How can this create a fair global currency?" Do they have any analysis to prevent wealth disparities in certain regions? ”
Regulation is also a risk that Worldcoin cannot bypass. Libra, a stablecoin project that once carried the vision of "world currency", even if there are more than 2 billion users of the world's Facebook platform behind it, will eventually be aborted, because currency is the power of sovereign countries.
Ultraman is also aware of this, saying at a public event that you may never use Worldcoin in the United States, "depending on how determined the U.S. government is to ban cryptocurrencies." This remark invisibly reveals that Worldcoin will eventually face a game of regulation with various countries.
In addition, the collection of biometric information to achieve identity proof will always put Worldcoin on the edge of the legal bottom line related to personal information protection.
In March this year, Worldcoin's World ID protocol used zero-knowledge proof technology to protect user data by allowing users to maintain control and anonymity over the use of ID data. Altman also said, "Personally, the amount of privacy I give up to use Facebook or something is more likely to have than the amount of privacy I give up to scan my retina." ”
But the reality is that Worldcoin is still a commercial company, and most countries have regulations on how commercial companies use private data, including the prohibition of unauthorized transfer of sensitive data such as personal information abroad. Worldcoin, which intends to "benefit the world", is clearly contrary to these current regulations, which is an important reason why its Orb equipment is difficult to roll out in more countries.
Iris biometric device Orb "pushes" in some areas
To date, Worldcoin has not publicly issued tokens. Early last year, a $100 million token financing valued the project's total token supply at $3 billion. But the latest official news said that Ultraman is seeking $100 million in new financing for the project.
OpenAI's CEO is about to break into this particular field of the cryptocurrency circle, which inevitably raises concerns that the failure of the experiment will have an impact on OpenAI's reputation. As Liu Changyong, director of the Blockchain Research Center of Chongqing Technology and Business University, said, interlacing is like a mountain, Sam Altman is an authority in the field of AI, and is likely to be a leek in the field of blockchain, and needs to pay tuition, "This process may ruin the main business." ”