All You Need to Know About OpenAI’s Worldcoin

Worldcoin is a digital identification platform that claims to provide each individual with a way of verifying their humanness. It comes with a cryptocurrency, a global decentralized financial network, and an application.

Creator: Coneyl Jay Credit: Getty Images

Developed by Open AI’s CEO Sam Altman, Worldcoin’s primary offering is a type of digital identity only accessible to humans. When the project launched on July 24, it already had over 2 million users registered during the beta phase.

The idea behind this digital ID, or the World ID, is to offer a way for people to prove their humanness online. Considering that the AI bots are getting better at portraying as humans by day, World ID is on to something.

To obtain a World ID, individuals must get their unique iris imprint scanned by a device called the Orb. The Orb is a silver ball the size of an average bowling ball, and it captures the image of a person’s eye to generate a distinctive identification code called the IrisCode.

The Orb

One catch of this futuristic project is that individuals who want to be a part of this world must find an orb in the physical world to get their eyes scanned. However, this is not as difficult as it sounds. The project has been in development for over three years, and the project team has been planting Orbs all over the world.

Currently, the Orbs are accessible in 35 cities and 20 countries, including Mexico, Egypt, Turkey, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, and India. The project team also travels from country to country with a set of Orbs. They were recently in Hong Kong for a limited time. The time and date periods of the upcoming countries are shared on Worldcoin’s official X (Twitter) account.

The Word App and Worldcoin Token (WLD)

The IrisCodes are recorded on the project’s blockchain and offer its users a wide range of decentralized finance applications, all collected under the World App.

Users gain some Worldcoin Tokens (WLD) when they scan their iris. The amount of WLD earned for scanning depends on the country the person resides in and the project stage. WLD is also listed on major exchanges like Binance.

The overall ecosystem focuses on providing a seamless, decentralized, and transparent network of identity-verified future of finance.

The Oppositions

The idea of scanning and storing an image of the iris makes some lawmakers uncomfortable. Regulators from France, Germany, and the U.K. are investigating and questioning the validity of the project.

However, worldcoin representatives ensured the crypto community that they are complying with all the required laws. They stated:

“The Worldcoin Foundation complies with all laws and regulations governing the processing of personal data in the markets where Worldcoin is available, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).”