iBall-Testing Crypto 'WorldCoin' Project Started by Sam Altman of OpenAI

Its latest Eyeball-Identified Cryptocurrency project, called 'WorldCoin', was launched on Monday by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman
WorldCoin iBosto

Its latest Eyeball-Identified Cryptocurrency project, called 'WorldCoin', was launched on Monday by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, which will provide a trusted way to separate people from AI on the Internet, enable global democratic processes and significantly improve economic equality.

Main Points
  • The iBall-identified cryptocurrency project, called 'WorldCoin', was launched on Monday by Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI.
  • WorldCoin was created in 2020 by Sam Altman, who is now best known for his work with ChatGPT developer OpenAI.
  • Monday's opening, WorldCoin is expanding the "orbing" program to 35 cities in 20 nations..
  • So far more than 2 million people have a unique World ID.

It verifies users' Identities by testing their Eyes and Claims to solve a complex problem that has arisen with recent advances in Artificial Intelligence, making it difficult to distinguish whether objects were created by Humans or Algorithms.

WorldCoin

“The WorldCoin Foundation today announced that WorldCoin, a project of the joint founders Sam Altman, Alex Blania and Max Novendstern, is now active,” read an announcement on the WorldCoin website. WorldCoin assigns each user a confidential digital identity – a “World ID” – which they must pre-register to obtain, where an “orb” image-taking machine scans the unique iris patterns of their eyes to ensure they are “True, Equal, Manus”.

WorldCoin was created in 2020 by Sam Altman, who is now best known for his work with ChatGPT developer OpenAI. Currently one of the principal founders of WorldCoin is Alex Blaney, who now serves as the CEO of Tools for Humanity, the main organization handling WorldCoin until it achieves the level of being fully decentralized.

The project has 2 million customers in its testing phase, and with Monday's opening, WorldCoin is expanding the "orbing" program to 35 cities in 20 nations. As an incentive, registrants in some countries will receive WorldCoin's digital currency coin WLD.

The company says that where the rules are more vague, such as in the US, it will take measures to ensure that as many people as possible can benefit from both. Users can now install the first ever protocol-compliant Purse World App and receive their entitlements.

WorldCoin stated that it will hold approximately 20% of all its tokens, which are not yet being launched in the US, and will make 10 million tokens available for public use over the first 15 years. The platform is based on open-source and decentralized principles. The Worldcoin network will be built using Worldcoin, with security derived from Ethereum.

Through the Orb, a biometric identification device, they will get a World ID. This helps them to prove that they are a true, equal, human being with complete privacy online. As the worldwide distribution of the Orbs continues to accelerate, users can find the nearest time and place to register on the World App and the WorldCoin official website. Also, the startup has started meeting the global demand for World ID by publishing 1,500 orbs.

Several exchanges have now hoarded the token or revealed their intention to do so, including Binance, the world's best crypto exchange by trading volume.

Co-founder Alex Blania told Reuters that the cryptocurrency side of World ID is important because cryptocurrency blockchains can handle World ID in a way that preserves privacy and that it is not possible to be controlled or stopped by a single entity. The project states that World ID will be needed in an era of creative AI chatbots like ChatGPT, which produce predominantly human-type language. World ID can be used to identify similarities between humans and online AI bots.

If we are successful, we believe WorldCoin could substantially increase economic potential, create a level of reliable measure to separate humans from AI online while preserving privacy, enable worldwide democratic processes, and ultimately present a potential route to AI-assisted (Universal Basic Income),” Altman and Blania said in a letter posted on Twitter.


"People will be more influenced by Artificial Intelligence, which will have wider economic consequences," he told Reuters.

Berlin-based WorldCoin has raised $125 million since its 2019 founding, with backers including Andreessen Horowitz, Khosla Ventures and Reid Hoffman. WorldCoin says crowdsourcing for key situations such as India's war against COVID-19 and money to Ukraine could be simplified through its digital token, which could facilitate cross-border payments.

Altman said he thought a world with UBI would be "far in the future" and that he didn't have a clear idea of which institutions could provide the money, but that WorldCoin has worked on a pilot basis to make it a reality. "We think we need to start experimenting with things so we can figure out what to do," he said.

So far more than 2 million people have a unique World ID. According to WorldCoin, over 60,000 digital wallet trades were registered on the network in the past 30 days, while over 48,000 accounts were set up on the WorldCoin network in the past week.

What we Don't Know

The WorldCoin cryptocurrency is currently not available in the US. It is not yet clear when or how this will change, and it comes amid growing concerns that help encourage fraud and speculation, as well as a wider effort by US administrators to crack down on digital assets. Altman told the FT that "the US does not create or destroy a project like this," although he added that the group had no idea the project would lead to "a world without US coins."

Tangent Line

In the years since its informal launch, the WorldCoin project has received considerable attention from critics. The main concerns relate to the use of biometric data—eye tests—to confirm users' identities, particularly the privacy risks associated with collecting, storing, and using such data. For some, the fact that the project enticed early users to sign up with some cryptocurrency amounted to an immoral inducement. While a major use of blockchain, the technology powering cryptocurrencies and other decentralized networks, is to mask one's identity, others are at the core of identifying humans in similarly subtle and accurate ways.

What to Watch

Altman said he expects 2 billion users to sign up on WorldCoin now that the platform is officially live. It's unclear how quickly the company will be able to expand, especially given the need for in-person meetings. WorldCoin's website states that it is actively engaging orb handlers in additional locations and that 2,000 orbs have been created.

Important Quotes

Altman said missions like WorldCoin "seem to be especially important in the artificial intelligence era" when it is becoming increasingly difficult to separate the work of humans and machines. Altman said, “Like any really ambitious endeavor, it might work out and it might not, but those kinds of things make progress. "In any case, we especially love our haters, it inspires us, please keep at it!