Tag: worldcoin

Spain Bans Worldcoin Project Over Sensitive Data Collection Concerns: Details

The short-lived rally of the Worldcoin popularity came to a halt in several nations in recent months. Worldcoin’s user data collection via eye scans has raised concerns among several governments around the world. This week, Spain became the latest nation to ban Sam Altman’s ambitious project from collecting personal data and biometrics of Spanish citizens. What world leaders are seeing as riddled with privacy issues, Altman’s Worldcoin project aims to create a unique identification of personhood now that bots and AI are on the rise.

The decision to restrict Worldcoin’s operations in Spain has been finalised by AEPD, the data protection regulator of the country. In an official statement, the regulatory body has warned Worldcoin against collecting anymore data and also against using the already obtained information.

“The AEPD has received several complaints against this company denouncing, among other aspects, insufficient information, the collection of data from minors or that the withdrawal of consent is not allowed,” the statement from AEPD said this week.

Based in US’ San Francisco, Worldcoin officially launched in July last year. It aims to assign ‘World IDs’ to global citizens as an ‘international proof of personhood’. With these IDs, people will not need to share their personal details to interact with web and websites. In August last year, representatives of the project had set up booths in several parts of the world – collecting eye scans of people through its own one-of-a-kind machine called the Orbs.

As people lined up before Worldcoin booths in different parts of the world including India, policymakers realised that this data collection process by Worldcoin seemed problematic. Kenya was among the first nations to take a stringent step towards controlling the Worldcoin craze — by suspending it indefinitely for the time being.

“The processing of biometric data, considered in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as having special protection, entails high risks for people’s rights, taking into account their sensitive nature,” the Spanish regulator noted.

This operational jerk for Worldcoin comes just a week after the project claimed that the World App surpassed one million daily users for the first time in February.

At the time, WLD, the native token of the Worldcoin project had recorded a jump of 140 percent over a period of seven days. WLD was trading at $7.58 (roughly Rs. 628) on February 19. Presently, the token is trading at $7.23 (roughly Rs. 597), as per CoinMarketCap.

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OpenAI’s Sam Altman Highlights Importance of Worldcoin Global Identity Project as AI Picks Pace

The buzz around the Worldcoin project rose and fizzled in days around August this year. Some much needed support from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to this project, however, has propelled the Worldcoin initiative back onto the headlines. Altman was recently speaking in an interview when he lauded the concept of the Worldcoin project. The web3 initiative, brainchild of Altman himself, aims to issue a global identity of individual humans on blockchain to distinguish them from AI and robots.

In conversation with investment bank FT Partners, Altman reportedly said, “in a world with a lot of AI, knowing who is human matters more and more.”

This statement from OpenAI’s chief came just days after reports surfaced that Worldcoin’s parent company called Tools for Humanity was looking to bag a funding of at least up to $50 million (roughly Rs. 415 crore). To do so, the company is selling Worldcoin ‘s native WLD tokens at slashed prices.

After governments of multiple countries opened inquiries on Worldcoin, it may have resulted in some slowdown for the project’s fundings. For the authorities of Kenya, Germany, and the UK, among other nations – Worldcoin’s requirement for people to register their iris scans did not bode well. The Kenyan law enforcement officers, in particular, also seized Worldcoin’s records and Orb machines to be investigated by Directorate of Criminal Investigations headquarters.

Earlier this year in May, investment firms like Blockchain Capital, a16z crypto, and Bain Capital Crypto injected $115 million (roughly Rs. 955 crore) into Worldcoin in a Series C funding round.

Since August this year, the project has stayed away from the spotlight up until now when Altman said, “the belief was and is that as AI becomes an increasingly important part of our lives…the ability to identify unique humans was going to be more and more important.”

The San Francisco, US-based company is looking to assign ‘World IDs’ to global citizenry. With this ‘international proof of personhood’, Worldcoin believes that people will no longer need to share their personal details like names, numbers, and email IDs in order to connect with websites.

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Worldcoin Office Searched in Nairobi, Kenyan Authorities Confiscate Stored Records: Report

Kenya’s scepticism around the controversial Web3 project, Worldcoin, seems to be growing with each passing day. Over the weekend, Kenyan authorities reportedly raided the office of Worldcoin in Nairobi, only to confiscate all the stored information of the users who registered with the project. The development followed an official government order there, which suspended Worldcoin-related activities indefinitely, for the time being. The controversial project is the brainchild of Sam Altman, the founder of ChatGPT parent firm, OpenAI.

Officially launched on July 24, Altman’s Worldcoin project is aiming to create a network of ‘real humans’ and no robots. The San Francisco, US-based company is looking to assign ‘World IDs’ to global citizenry. Altman aims to give real humans a ‘global identity of personhood’, which will eliminate the need for them to reveal their personal details just to interact with websites. To do so, the project requires people to submit their eye scans as a biometric verification, which Worldcoin is obtaining via its own spherical machine, called the Orb.

As part of its raid, the Kenyan law enforcement officers have reportedly seized Worldcoin’s records and machines. The confiscated items have been taken to Kenya’s Directorate of Criminal Investigations headquarters for due analysis.

Tools for Humanity, the parent company of Worldcoin, has been accused of not disclosing its true intentions when it registered in Kenya. Immaculate Kassait, the commissioner of Kenya’s Office of the Data Protection, is overseeing the investigations.

The Kenyan authorities shifted its focus to Worldcoin after hundreds of people began queuing to get registered for the project since its official launch in July. All registered nationals have submitted their iris scans into the Orbs. Videos of them doing so have emerged on social media.

People who sign up for their World IDs are also eligible to claim the WLD token, which is the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum blockchain-based project. In the backdrop of this ongoing Worldcoin controversy, the pricing of the WLD token dropped from $2.26 (roughly Rs. 187) on August 4, to $1.92 (roughly Rs. 158) on August 8.

Crypto founders and industry insiders remain sceptical of Worldcoin as well. Sathvik Vishwanath, Co-Founder and CEO of Unocoin crypto exchange, said the Worldcoin project raises “serious privacy concerns” over its collection of biometric data. “Although the project team, led by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, said Orb does not store user data, sceptics remained wary,” Vishwanath added.

Worldcoin has reached India as well. Several metro stations in and around the National Capital Region (NCR) and some spots in tech hub Bengaluru have Worldcoin booths with people queuing up for registrations.

Indian authorities have not yet joined France, Germany, and Kenya in opening probes against Worldcoin.

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What is the Controversial Worldcoin Project All About and Why are Nations Concerned: Details

Worldcoin, a billion-dollar startup founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, has created ripples in the Web3 space in the last two weeks. Officially launched on July 24, Worldcoin is aiming to create a network of ‘real humans’ and no robots. The San Francisco, US-based company is looking to assign ‘World IDs’ to global citizenry. With this ‘international proof of personhood’, Worldcoin believes that people will no longer need to share their personal details like names, numbers, and email IDs in order to connect with websites.

Within two weeks of its launch, over two million people from around the world have signed up with Worldcoin. People who sign-up for their World IDs are also eligible to claim the WLD token, which is the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum blockchain-based project.

At the time of writing, each WLD token was priced at $2.26 (roughly Rs. 187), showed CoinMarketCap. The total market cap of the WLD token currently stands at $266 million (roughly Rs. 2,207 crore).

Soon after the project went live, Worldcoin sign-up booths were installed in different countries. In India, several metro stations in and around the National Capital Region (NCR) and some in India’s tech hub Bengaluru have Worldcoin booths with people queuing up for registrations.

While the cause that Altman’s Worldcoin is trying to chase may seem noble in terms of offering security to user data, the project has received major backlash from several nations.

Those looking to register themselves for their World IDs are required to submit their biometrics with the company. Taking eye scans via its orb is Worldcoin’s way of ensuring verification of each signing-up user.

This requirement has raised concerns among world governments with regards to security of their citizens as well as their countries. Policymakers are also worried about people being exposed to free WLD tokens that are being given as incentives for people signing up.

Kenya is among the first nations to take a stringent step towards controlling the Worldcoin craze — by suspending it indefinitely for the time being.

In an official statement this week, Kenya’s ministry of interior and national administration said, “Relevant security, financial services, and data protection agencies have commenced inquiries to establish the authenticity and legality of the aforesaid activities”.

To oversee and tackle the Worldcoin frenzy in France and Germany, regulators of the European Union are reportedly opening probes on the project.

India has released no such notice for Worldcoin, as of now.

For now, neither Altman nor the Worldcoin team has reacted to Kenya’s suspension.

“Worldcoin aims to establish universal access to the global economy regardless of country or background. It is designed to become the world’s largest human identity and financial network, giving ownership to everyone. All with the intention of welcoming every person on the planet and establishing a place for all of us to benefit in the age of Artificial Intelligence (AI),” the project’s website reads.

In March, the company said that the simplest way to use World ID is as a sign-in method.

“Upon selecting Sign in with Worldcoin on a website, mobile app or crypto dapp, you approve or reject the request from your self-custodial wallet to authenticate and prove you’re a real and unique person. No one, not even Worldcoin contributors or application developers, can track you across websites, identify the World ID connected to your account or generally know more about you,” the firm noted.

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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s Worldcoin Crypto Under European Regulators Scrutiny

Less than a week after its launch, the Worldcoin crypto project of OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman is already under scrutiny by European regulators over its reliance on an eye scan to verify a user’s identity, France’s data protection agency said Friday.

Worldcoin’s launch on Monday comes as the cryptocurrency industry is suffering hard times after the spectacular collapse of FTX and various legal cases against the sector’s biggest players.

Using eye scans, it tries to solve one of the main challenges facing the crypto industry: a level of anonymity so high that makes it vulnerable to scams and spam bots — which AI threatens to make exponentially worse. 

But Worldcoin’s collection of biometric data could run afoul of strict data privacy rules in Europe.

“Worldcoin has begun to collect data in France… which seems questionable as does the conservation of biometric data,” France’s CNIL data regulator told AFP.

After conducting an initial review, CNIL said it identified its counterpart in the German state of Bavaria as the lead agency in Europe to conduct a probe into Worldcoin, and said it supports their investigation.

Worldcoin in fact began operating in June in Germany, which is the home country of co-founder Alex Blania.

Bavaria’s data protection agency had no immediate comment when contacted by AFP on Friday.

With its cryptocurrency and identification system Worldcoin aims to create the “world’s largest identity and financial public network,” according to its website.

Altman and Blania said earlier this week in a letter posted to Twitter, which is being renamed X, that the Worldcoin offers “a reliable solution for distinguishing humans from AI online while preserving privacy”.

This will in turn enable Worldcoin as a blockchain-based technology to drastically increase economic opportunity and enable democratic processes.

Blockchains are distributed databases that facilitate the verification and traceability of transactions. 

They can offer lower costs and faster data transfer while ensuring secure transactions, although the most famous blockchain that powers the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, is notorious for being slow and expensive as it requires huge computer processing power to validate transactions as part of its system to reward processors with new bitcoins.

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(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Launches Worldcoin Cryptocurrency Project: Details

Worldcoin, a cryptocurrency project founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, launches on Monday.

The project’s core offering is its World ID, an account that only real humans can get. To get a World ID, a customer signs up to do an in-person iris scan using Worldcoin’s ‘orb’, a silver ball approximately the size of a bowling ball. Once the orb’s iris scan verifies the person is a real human, it creates a World ID.

The company behind Worldcoin is San Francisco and Berlin-based Tools for Humanity.

The project has 2 million users from its beta period, and with Monday’s launch, Worldcoin is scaling up “orbing” operations to 35 cities in 20 countries. As an enticement, those who sign up in certain countries will receive Worldcoin’s cryptocurrency token WLD.

The cryptocurrency aspect of the World IDs is important because cryptocurrency blockchains can store the World IDs in a way that preserves privacy and can’t be controlled or shut down by any single entity, co-founder Alex Blania told Reuters.

The project says World IDs will be necessary in the age of generative AI chatbots like ChatGPT, which produce remarkably humanlike language. World IDs could be used to tell the difference between real people and AI bots online.

Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange, said it will list Worldcoin with the tentative opening of trading expected to be on Monday at 0900 GMT.

Altman told Reuters Worldcoin also can help address how the economy will be reshaped by generative AI.

“People will be supercharged by AI, which will have massive economic implications,” he said.

One example Altman likes is universal basic income, or UBI, a social benefits program usually run by governments where every individual is entitled to payments. Because AI “will do more and more of the work that people now do,” Altman believes UBI can help to combat income inequality. Since only real people can have World IDs, it could be used to reduce fraud when deploying UBI.

Altman said he thought a world with UBI would be “very far in the future” and he did not have a clear idea of what entity could dole out money, but that Worldcoin lays groundwork for it to become a reality.

“We think that we need to start experimenting with things so we can figure out what to do,” he said.

© Thomson Reuters 2023

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