A senior manager at the company behind the project told Reuters that Worldcoin will expand its operations to attract more users globally and aims to allow other organizations to use its iris scanning and authentication technology.
Worldcoin, co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, launched last week and requires users to undergo an iris scan in exchange for a digital ID and is also offering cryptocurrency for free in some countries as a way to create “ Identity and Financial Network” initiative.
On registration sites around the world, people have been having their faces scanned with a shiny spherical “orb,” shrugging off concerns from privacy campaigners that biometric data could be misused. Worldcoin said 2.2 million people have signed up, mostly during its trial period over the past two years. Data regulators in Britain, France and Germany said they were investigating the project.
“Our mission is to build the largest financial and identity community we can,” said Ricardo Macieira, general manager Europe at Tools For Humanity in San Francisco and Berlin, the company behind the project.
Worldcoin had raised $115 million (nearly Rs 95,150 crore) in a funding round in May from venture capital investors including Blockchain Capital, a16z crypto, Bain Capital Crypto and Distributed Global.
Marcela said WorldCoin will continue to operate in Europe, Latin America, Africa and “everywhere in the world that is willing to accept us.”
Worldcoin’s website mentions a variety of possible applications, including differentiating humans from artificial intelligence, enabling “global democratic processes,” and demonstrating “potential pathways” toward universal basic income, although these outcomes are not guaranteed.
Most people interviewed by Reuters last week at registration sites in Britain, India and Japan said they joined to get the 25 free Worldcoin tokens the company said verified users could claim.
“I don’t think we’re going to be the ones to generate a universal basic income. We would be very happy if we could put in place the infrastructure that allows governments or other entities to do that,” Masella said.
Companies can pay Worldcoin to use its digital identity system. For example, if a coffee shop wants to give everyone a free cup of coffee, Worldcoin’s technology can be used to ensure that people don’t ask for more than one cup of coffee, without the store having to collect personal data. Serra said.
“The idea is that as we build this infrastructure, we allow other third parties to use the technology.”
Macieira added that the technology behind the iris-scanning balls will be open source in the future.
“The idea is that in the future anyone can build their own sphere and use it to benefit their target community,” he said.
Private issues
Regulators and privacy activists have raised concerns about Worldcoin’s data collection, including whether users gave informed consent and whether one company should be responsible for processing the data.
WorldCoin’s website calls the project “completely private” and biometric data will either be deleted or users can choose to store it in encrypted form.
The Bavarian State Data Protection Supervisory Office has jurisdiction in the EU, as Tools For Humanity has offices in the EU. The office said it began investigating Worldcoin in November 2022 due to concerns about its large-scale handling of sensitive data.
Michael Weil, chairman of the Bavarian regulator, said it would investigate whether Worldcoin’s system is “safe and stable.”
Weir said the project “requires very, very ambitious security measures and a lot of explanation and transparency to ensure data protection requirements are not ignored”.
Will said people handing over data need to have “absolute clarity” on how and why it is being processed.
Rainer Rehak, a researcher on artificial intelligence and society at Berlin’s Weizenbaum Institute, said Worldcoin’s use of technology is “irresponsible” and it is unclear what problems it will solve.
“Most importantly, this is a big project to create a new consumer base for Web3 and encryption products,” he said. Web3 is the term for the next phase of the internet based on the hypothesis of blockchain, where users’ assets and data exist as tradable cryptoassets.
Addressing privacy concerns, the Cayman Islands-based WorldCoin Foundation said in a statement that it complies with all laws governing personal data and will continue to cooperate with regulatory authorities’ requests for information about its privacy and data protection practices.
© Thomson Reuters 2023
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