Sam Altman's 'magic ball' project is at risk of dying prematurely

Worldcoin, the project that allows users to scan their iris to receive free cryptocurrency by Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, no longer attracts attention even though it was only launched a month ago.

According to The Block , the price of WLD, the token of Worldcoin and distributed to those who accept iris scanning, has dropped by 44% in value in the past 30 days from 24/7, when the project launched . From 2.5 USD per coin, this digital currency is now about 1.3 USD and is continuing to go downhill.

CoinGekco assesses that with this decline, WLD is likely to soon fall below one USD per coin. And Gizmodo thinks that with the token price constantly falling, users will not be excited to participate, causing the project to "die prematurely", unless the team behind comes up with a new solution.

WLD token price dropped from more than 2.5 USD to 1.3 USD per coin. Source: CoinMarketCap

Worldcoin has a focus on a "magic ball" called Orb that scans a user's iris to verify they're not a bot. After scanning, the user receives a World ID code, confirming the completion of the identification process and 25 free WLDs. Reuters quoted Alex Blania, co-founder of World ID, that blockchain allows the system to store and protect users' identities and privacy from the control of any single entity.

At launch, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, said that Worldcoin and Orb have appeared in dozens of cities in more than 20 countries and have issued IDs to more than two million people from 120 countries, mainly during the trial period. experience the past two years. Some videos appearing on social networks also show hundreds of people lining up along the streets waiting to have their iris scanned and receive free cryptocurrency.

However, things went downhill since the Kenyan authorities blocked Worldcoin. On August 2, Kenya's Ministry of Home Affairs announced it was suspending all project-related activities until authorities determined whether there was a risk to citizens. They are also looking at "how collectors intend to use the data".

Kenya is one of the first 20+ countries where Worldcoin has been deployed over the past two years. There are 18 iris scanners here and more than 350,000 people have accepted the scan to receive free digital currency.

Sam Altman and the "Orb" sphere used to scan the retina for data for World ID. Photo: Sama

Previously, Worldcoin received great attention, but some experts also voiced warnings, including Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin . He pointed out four major problems PoP user authentication systems face: privacy, accessibility, centralization, and security.

"There is no ideal form of proof of human dignity," Buterin said. However, he assessed that Worldcoin has made many strides in combining hardware with new technologies to create a secure authentication method that promotes privacy.

Meanwhile, security campaign group Big Brother Watch warns that collected data is at risk of being attacked or exploited for personal purposes. In addition to Kenya, Worldcoin is also on the radar of the UK data regulator.

Bao Lam

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