Sam Altman, the head of OpenAI and ChatGPT, is now taking another one of his babies onto the world stage: Worldcoin.
The WinePress reported on the introduction of back in October, 2021, when Worldcoin was still getting off the ground and still in the investment and piloting phase. Altman and his team designed a round metallic ball, “The Orb,” that allows users to scan their eye’s iris and creating a unique profile and ID. It was first touted as being the next big thing for cryptocurrency. At the time early enrollees and participants received free cryptocurrencies in exchange for their iris scan.
At that time Altman said he believed this new orb will be a step closer towards universal basic income (UBI) – where they and other investors, politicians, and the such like, envision providing free cash to everyone; while governments control and assimilate these technologies with artificial intelligence and autonomy in daily life and the workplace. Alex Blania, the other co-founder, believes that this coin could be used as a basis for this in the future.
Network effects are these very coveted things that are incredibly big.
You see this in Facebook. As soon as you suddenly have a billion people and everyday people holding something like that and using something like that, you as an entrepreneur can build completely new things.
Blania said
In order for people to not cheat the system, Blania says “proof of person” alleviates this issue:
The only solution for that problem, we found, was to build an orb. It’s the most secure and privacy-preserving way we found to prove everyone in the world is unique.
He added
In a blog post published this past June, the company explained why they are so fascinated with the iris and collecting that data.
The iris has high entropy, i.e randomness. If you take a close look at the iris, there is a very rich pattern of small holes, lines and ridges that make it both very complex and unique. So unique, in fact, that it can theoretically be used to distinguish between billions of individual humans.
Based on the iris texture, it calculates something called an iris code that is essentially a mathematical representation of the iris texture in the form of a digital code.
The end goal is to build a proof of personhood mechanism, and to do that you need something known as one-to-N verification. This means that, after your iris image has been calculated into an iris code in an Orb, that code has to be compared not against one iris code, but against all other iris codes created at all other Orbs worldwide. Then can the protocol verify you are unique and human.
After quietly building steam Worldcoin is now making a splash around the world, officially launching on July 24th, with the goal of capturing all 8 billion plus people to join and create unique IDs for; allowing world governments to then incorporate Worldcoin’s framework for the governments to use.
The company wrote in is press release, ‘The launch includes the release of the World ID SDK and plans to scale Orb operations to 35+ cities across 20+ countries around the world. In tandem, the Foundation’s subsidiary, World Assets Ltd., minted and released the Worldcoin token (WLD) to the millions of eligible people who participated in the beta; WLD is now transactable on the blockchain.’
The company again emphasizes that Worldcoin is not only a countermeasure to combat AI overreach and deepfakes, but to implement UBI. ‘Worldcoin’s global decentralized identity and financial network could drastically increase economic opportunity, scale a reliable and privacy-preserving way to distinguish humans from AI online, enable global democratic processes and eventually show a potential path for AI-funded universal basic income (UBI),’ the company wrote.
In the age of AI, the need for proof of personhood is no longer a topic of serious debate; instead, the critical question is whether or not the proof of personhood solutions we have can be privacy-first, decentralized and maximally inclusive.
Through its unique technology, Worldcoin aims to provide anyone in the world, regardless of background, geography or income, access to the growing digital and global economy in a privacy preserving and decentralized way.
Blania said in a statement
The official rollout includes there main tenets right now:
- World ID, a privacy-preserving digital identity designed to help solve important, identity-based challenges, including proving an individual’s unique personhood
- Worldcoin token (WLD), where laws allow, the first digital currency to be freely distributed to people for just being a unique human*
- World App, the first World ID-compatible app, developed and operated by Tools for Humanity, that enables payment, purchases and transfers globally using digital assets and fiat-backed stablecoins
World ID ‘Whether You Like It Or Not’
This is what Alex Blania said several weeks ago in an interview crypto website Coindesk.
In the weeks before the launch Blania provided more details on Worldcoin and how it will transform the world. Blania’s believes that people will eventually need and will have a digital ID to operate on the internet.
[…] Something like World ID will eventually exist, meaning that you will need to verify [that you are human] on the internet, whether you like it or not. I think that’s certainly going to happen with the progress in AI. It’s probably going to happen in the next couple of years.And Worldcoin, I think, is the only path that we currently have that can get to that level of being accepted by the powerful players, and still be completely privacy-preserving and not rely on government infrastructure. And it’s all open source all of those things that crypto theoretically loves.
Since that interview Worldcoin claims on their website a little less than 2.2 million people have already signed-up, at the time of this report.
Just yesterday, August 2nd, Worldcoin announced that they will be allowing governments to adopt their framework. Ricardo Macieira, general manager for Europe at Tools For Humanity, the San Francisco and Berlin-based company behind the project, explained this in an interview with Reuters.
Reuters reported: ‘Companies could pay Worldcoin to use its digital identity system, for example if a coffee shop wants to give everyone one free coffee, then Worldcoin’s technology could be used to ensure that people do not claim more than one coffee without the shop needing to gather personal data, Macieira said.’
I don’t think we are going to be the ones generating universal basic income. If we can do the infrastructure that allows for governments or other entities to do so we would be very happy.
The idea is that as we build this infrastructure and that we allow other third parties to use the technology. The idea is that anyone can in the future build their own orb and use it to benefit the community that it’s aiming for.
Macieira said
Mixed Response, Mostly Negative
2.2 million is long way off from achieving 8 billion (approximately 0.00000275 of the world population). While there has been some apparent intrigue, it seems Worldcoin has seen some stark resistance and hesitance.
Biometric Update has kept track of Worldcoin’s whereabouts; documenting that Worldcoin has been rolled out in Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Japan, and elsewhere. Worldcoin provides a map of The Orb’s locations. New users earned 25 WLD coins in exchange for their iris.
Kenya – which is working on their own digital ID framework, and is yoking up with BRICS nations whilst dumping their shares of the U.S. dollar – appears to be the first nation to ban Worldcoin activities in their country, and has joined other nations in investigating the safety and privacy protection of Worldcoin. Biometric Update reported:
The country’s Ministry of Home Affairs announced it is suspending Worldcoin’s enrollments and cryptocurrency issuance while “the relevant government agencies certify the absence of any risk to the public.”
In Kenya, tokens are worth approximately 7700 shillings, or around US$54 – no small amount when the national gross income per capita is around US$2,170. The offer has worked, with thousands of people showing out in the capital of Nairobi this week to trade their iris scans for crypto and a digital ID.
Other commentators have blasted this concept referencing it as a “dystopian future” and a scam comparable to that of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX “Ponzi scheme.”
Andrew M. Bailey and Nick Almond for Blockworks, a crypto outlet, blasted Worldcoin, saying (excerpts):
Worldcoin — a new financial system connected to sensitive biometric information, mostly harvested from poor people — sure sounds like a terrible idea.
“Terrible” doesn’t do it justice.
Worldcoin will need to assemble a vast database of iris data. But not everyone is eager to gaze into an Orb. In the bootstrapping phase, at least, you had to pay people to scan their eyes. And so Worldcoin turned to the global south — home to the cheapest eyeballs — and played a dark game of ‘what will people do for money?’
Incredibly, Worldcoin was unprepared for an obvious consequence of this rollout strategy: A black market for verified credentials. You can now seemingly buy a World ID for as little as $30. Anyone, then, with more than $30 on hand can command more than one digital identity (although Worldcoin is aware of this issue and has proposed solutions to resolve it). Connecting real people to digital identities is a thorny puzzle.
Worldcoin does not fix this. And it’s unlikely it ever can, since nothing in the design can stop professional sybil attackers farming eyeballs on the ground level through nefarious means.
This does not inspire trust in the system or its designers. And yet trust is what they demand. Worldcoin’s promotional materials are full of promises — to delete sensitive biometric information, or keep it hidden from view, or not use it in nefarious ways. One blog post (quoted here; the original appears to have been changed since initial release) put it this way: “During our field-testing phase, we are collecting and securely storing more data than we will upon its completion… We will delete all the biometric data we have collected during field testing once our algorithms are fully-trained.”
“Trust us,” in other words. “We’ll totally delete the eyeball database.”
Linking immutable biometric traits to money could have dystopian consequences.
Imagine that your digital identity has been lost in some way — shut down by authorities for non-compliance, or otherwise blocked. With traditional cash — and other cryptocurrencies — you can always make a new wallet and stash some fresh coins in it. But this isn’t Minority Report, and you can’t get a new iris from your neighborhood surgeon.
When your immutable digital identity is locked — imagine merchants who won’t take your coins from you without a digital signature announcing your World ID — it’s over for you. No old account. No new account. No soup for you. You just lost your digital personhood.
Boosters might reply that, thanks to zero-knowledge proofs, one could prove that a given transaction is associated with a valid World ID without disclosing which World ID that is — thus reducing the risk of total identity blockade. But this reply misses the point.
Zero-knowledge proofs could be used in benign ways or to preserve user privacy. Or authorities could demand more; they could demand that users reveal all, or be locked out altogether. Setting up a system and simply hoping its full powers of surveillance and control won’t be used is naive, at best.
There’s a well-known crypto trick; they call it a “Sam Coin” (yes, after that Sam). The idea is to release into circulation a very small percentage of all the tokens that will ever exist. Despite low liquidity and trading volume, some eye-popping fully diluted market cap numbers can result, which make for great marketing and creative accounting.
Worldcoin — much like MAPS, a notorious crypto dud — is a Sam Coin.
Alan Goode, CEO and Chief Analyst at Goode Intelligence, also weighed-in via Biometric Update, who is skeptical but still has a positive outlook on it:
I also believe that a problem for Tools for Humanity is that they have developed a very heavily engineered solution to solve one part of the identity conundrum; are you a unique human? From what I take from the white paper, they haven’t solved the ‘what human are you?’ question. I understand that this may go against some of the foundational pillars for decentralized identity and the coin community but if you want a world identity that can be used for voting, for setting up a bank account or for receiving universal basic income (UBI) then I believe you need to know what person is bound to that identity.
You would also expect an ambitious global project of this sort to be managed by an established world authority such as the World Bank or the United Nations, not by a group of tech entrepreneurs.
I do think that there are positives that can be taken from the project. The project does chime with a number of important trends that I am seeing in the biometric industry that include the importance of biometrics to digital identity and to the growth of stand-alone biometric devices supporting a wide range of applications including travel, hospitality, sports and entertainment, and retail. I believe that this is a positive step as it pushes biometrics into mainstream press and biometric vendors and suppliers could positively ride on the back of this noise.
I am sure this story will run and run and I shall definitely be following how the project proceeds as part of my continued research into biometrics and digital identity.
AUTHOR COMMENTARY
Ah yes, Sam Altman, another deranged, soulless sociopath with a thousand-yard stare like all the other Big Tech demoniacs.
[22] The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. [23] But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!The light of the righteous rejoiceth: but the lamp of the wicked shall be put out.
Matthew 6:22-23; Proverbs 13:9
This is the Hegelian Dialectic in the most perfect sense. It was this creep who helped create Chat-GPT and kickstarted the AI takeover, now this weasel wants to save the world from the problem he helped create! Problem. Reaction. Solution.
While it is too early to say whether or not Worldcoin sticks the landing, the concept and premise most definitely will. Before the mark of the beast arrives, its predecessors will be a clusterbomb of discombobulation: but that’s kinda the goal, really.
[16] And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: [17] And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. [18] Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six. Revelation 13:16-18
Also, I have also warned that a coming system to use the internet is coming, and this just reaffirms that. Of course we also know that the digital ID is of most importance to the elites.
SEE: The DQ Institute: The Social Credit Score To Become A Global Citizen To Use The Internet
[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).
The WinePress needs your support! If God has laid it on your heart to want to contribute, please prayerfully consider donating to this ministry. If you cannot gift a monetary donation, then please donate your fervent prayers to keep this ministry going! Thank you and may God bless you.
The puzzle pieces keep falling together to show we are there.
The time of Jacob’s trouble.