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Cryptocurrency is an extremely high-risk and complex investment. Dont invest unless youre prepared to lose all the money you invest. You are unlikely to be protected if something goes wrong.

Forbes Advisor has provided this content for educational reasons only and not to help you decide whether or not to invest in cryptocurrency. Should you decide to invest in cryptocurrency or in any other investment, you should always obtain appropriate financial advice and only invest what you can afford to lose.

After three years in development and a period of beta testing, digital ID platform Worldcoin officially launched onMonday 24 July.

Co-founded by Sam Altman, head of OpenAI CEO, Worldcoin aims to provide its users with a verified digital identity, plus acryptocurrencytoken helpfully named Worldcoin (WLD) and a crypto wallet app.

According to Worldcoin, advances in artificial intelligence have made it increasingly difficult to tell whether online activity, written text, digital artwork or really anything that exists on the internet came from real humans or AI.

The company proposes to help resolve this confusion by deploying a sort of digital passport, based on what it calls proof of personhood.

On Twitter (as it was then styled before the rebrand to X), Altman wrote: The goal is simple: A global financial and identity network based on proof of personhood. This feels especially important in the AI era. Im hopeful Worldcoin can contribute to conversations about how we share access, benefits, and governance of future AI systems.

Worldcoins platform verifies a users identity by scanning their iris to create personal, secure identification codes. The codes are saved on adecentralized blockchain, and the company claims they cannot be duplicated or spoofed to create false identities or engage in fraud.

The company says that it signed up more than two million users in the beta testing stage. It now plans to roll out scanning operations in dozens of cities in 20 countries worldwide.

Worldcoin is a digital identification platform that aims to provide each person on earth with a convenient way to verify that they are a real human and not a bot or an AI algorithm.

The company building Worldcoin Tools for Humanity was co-founded by Altman, who is better known forcreating ChatGPT. Ironically, Altman has played a central role in sparking the current AI gold rush, which has significantly worsened the very problem Worldcoin proposes to solve.

Worldcoin has built its digital passport system using the cryptographic and blockchain tools that support the wider world of cryptocurrency. It also supports the WLD crypto token, plus a payments platform.

Think of Worldcoin as a three-legged stool: it only works if people adopt and use three mutually reinforcing components.

The heart of the platform is World ID, which the company claims will enable users to verify their humanness online while maintaining their privacy. This so-called proof of personhood is created by an iris-scanning device called the Orb.

Much like fingerprints, every persons iris pattern is different. The Orb scans a users iris and uses its structure to create a unique identification code called an IrisCode. The code is not associated with a users personal information it exists solely to prevent people from acquiring more than one World ID.

After the Orb scans your iris and saves an anonymous IrisCode, it then issues your World ID. It also permanently deletes each iris image. The system does not depend on pointing scanners at your eyeballs each time you need to verify your identity.

Each World ID is added to the Worldcoin blockchain, and users deploy a cryptographically secure app to identify themselves.

As of launch, Worldcoin Orbs are available in London, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Singapore, Seoul, Paris, Lisbon, Mexico City, So Paulo, Nairobi, New York, San Francisco and 25 other cities around the world.

The World App is the repository for your World ID. Worldcoin claims that the app preserves users privacy while also providing access to a growing roster ofdecentralised financeapplications.

The app functions as acrypto wallet, but its primary purpose is to store user credentials so that users can verify themselves on any third-party application.

Besides your World ID, the app can hold Bitcoin, Ethereum and USDC, and the company says more cryptos will be supported in the future.

Once users create a World ID and download the World App, they get access to the WLD cryptocurrency token.

WLD was issued to users who took part in the beta programme. A large quantity of WLD was airdropped to users on 24 July as part of the platforms official launch.Crypto exchangeshave listed WLD for trading, including KuCoin and Binance, the worlds largest exchange by volume.

According to the Worldcoin white paper, a total of 10 billion WLD will be issued over the course of 15 years. Currently 143 million WLD are circulating as of the official launch. Of this amount, 43 million were allocated to verified World App users, and 100 million were sent to market makers to facilitate trading.

The project has already received a fair amount of criticism for its lofty goals and, to some, its questionable methods.

Shortly after the offical launch on 24 July, the UKs Information Commissioners Office (ICO) put out a statement regarding the risks of processing biometric data and issues regarding personal consent in the data management process.

An ICO spokesperson said: We note the launch of WorldCoin in the UK and will be making enquiries.

Organisations must conduct a Data Protection Impact Assessment before starting any processing that is likely to result in high risk, such as processing special category biometric data. Where they identify high risks that they cannot mitigate, they must consult the ICO.

Organisations also need to have a clear lawful basis to process personal data. Where they are relying on consent, this needs to be freely given and capable of being withdrawn without detriment.

It is thought the results of the UK regulators investigations could influence authorities in other jurisdictions.

After launching, Ethereum founderVitalik Buterinexpressed his concerns about Worldcoin in a blog post. He argued that the platforms iris scans could be harvesting more information than the company is letting on, or that someone could potentially scan someone elses iris in order to determine whether they had a World ID.

An April 2022MIT Technology Review articleclaimed that Worldcoin used deceptive marketing practices, collected more personal data than it acknowledged, and failed to obtain meaningful informed consent.

The company issued a25-page rebuttalto MIT Technology Reviews criticisms, saying: We want to make it very clear that Worldcoin is not a data company and our business model does not involve exploiting or selling personal user data.

Worldcoin is only interested in a users uniqueness ie, that they have not signed up for Worldcoin before not their identity.

Worldcoin has also been criticized for widely promoting the platform in the developing world. A significant portion of new users are in Asia and Africa, raising concerns about exploitation.

Finally, in an October 2021 early funding round, Worldcoin received an investment bySam Bankman-Fried, the founder of failed crypto exchange FTX.

Excerpt from:
Worldcoin: The Cryptocurrency That Wants To Scan Your Eyeballs - Forbes