Eye for an eye! How Worldcoin rewards you for scanning your irises, just not for the US

Worldcoin is a crypto project that has a bold vision: to give people free digital coins if they let a silver orb scan their eyes. This way, the project hopes to tell humans and AI apart online and also explore the idea of an “AI-funded” universal basic income. But as this idea takes off, some people are worried about privacy and other problems.

The person behind Worldcoin is Mr. Altman, the boss of OpenAI, the company that made the famous chatbot ChatGPT. He thinks Worldcoin can help solve a big challenge in the digital world: how to know who is human and who is not. He also thinks Worldcoin can help create more economic opportunities for people.

“Worldcoin could drastically increase economic opportunity, scale a reliable solution for distinguishing humans from AI online while preserving privacy,” he wrote in a letter on the company website.

To make this happen, Worldcoin needs a lot of people to join in. They need to scan their faces and irises into the silver orbs, which will give them a unique number and some free crypto tokens. Over the last two years, more than two million people from 33 countries have done this. Most of them are from Europe, India, and southern Africa.

Now that the project is ready to launch, many people are curious and eager to try it out. They line up at the places where the orbs are set up. But not everyone can join.

US citizens are not allowed because of some rules.

Getting scanned is easy and fast. After scanning their irises, people get a unique number that is checked with the database to make sure no one cheats. Then they get 25 free Worldcoin tokens, which are worth about $2 (£1.56) each. They can use the tokens for different things, like trading or giving to charity.

But not everyone is happy about Worldcoin. Some people who run the orbs have been accused of tricking people into signing up, especially in poorer countries. Some privacy experts are also worried that the eye scans could be stolen or misused, even though Worldcoin says they don’t keep any data.

Another problem is that Worldcoin depends on these orbs too much. Some critics think that Worldcoin could have too much control, which could make people not trust them.

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Some cryptocurrency experts have mixed feelings about Worldcoin. Vitalik Buterin, who co-founded Ethereum, liked the orbs for protecting privacy but also warned about the risks of the project. Jack Dorsey, who founded Twitter and loves crypto, seemed doubtful, calling Worldcoin’s mission “cute” and jokingly saying, “Visit the Orb or the Orb will visit you…”

Mr. Altman is not bothered by the critics, though. He thinks they can help him learn and improve.

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