Tech
Worldcoin: Sam Altman Launches Crypto Currency Eyeball Scan
- By Joe Tidy
- Cyber correspondent
July 25, 2023
A cryptocurrency project described as “dystopian” has been launched by artificial intelligence entrepreneur Sam Altman.
Worldcoin offers people digital coins in exchange for a scan of their eyes.
At sites around the world, thousands of people lined up to look at the silver spheres on the first day of the project’s full launch.
The BBC visited a scanning site in London where people received free crypto tokens after completing the process.
Altman, CEO of Open AI which created the ChatGPT chatbot, hopes the initiative will help confirm whether someone is a human or a robot.
“Worldcoin could dramatically increase economic opportunities and create a reliable solution to distinguish humans from artificial intelligence online while preserving privacy,” Altman said in a pitch letter on the company’s website.
Worldcoin also claims that its system could pave the way for an “AI-funded” universal basic income. But it’s not clear how.
Image source, Getty Images
Image caption, Sam Altman’s company founded the popular artificial intelligence software, ChatGPT
The concept of universal basic income provides that all citizens receive a fixed salary regardless of their means.
The first step in this crypto utopia outlined by Worldcoin, however, relies on convincing millions, perhaps even billions, of people to scan their irises to prove they are human.
Since testing the scanners began two years ago, Worldcoin says more than two million people have been added to the crypto database in 33 different countries.
According to the company, most of the signups occurred in Europe, India and southern Africa.
Now that the project has been fully launched and crypto tokens are available to claim and trade, it is expected to become even more popular.
Worldcoin posted a photo online of people queuing at a site in Japan and said it plans to launch 1,500 Orbs at locations around the world.
The BBC went to try it out at a temporary site in east London and found a steady stream of people turning up.
Image caption, BBC IT correspondent Joe Tidy is testing a Worldcoin sphere
The process begins with scanning your face and iris to prove that you are a person. It takes about 10 seconds to attach the Orb’s camera lens and wait for a beep to confirm that it worked. Interestingly, the operator of the Orb claims that the silver ball spoke to users, but customer feedback described it as “creepy,” so they removed the voice.
The next step is that the iris scan is given a unique number which is checked against the giant database to make sure it’s the first time you’ve done it. If so, the ball beeps again and you are now in the database along with 2.06 million other humans as of this writing.
Upon completion you are awarded 25 free Worldcoin tokens, currently valued at around $2 (£1.56) each. The BBC will sell the coins once received and donate the money to Children in Need.
By the time the BBC left the pop-up site, 13 people had been scanned. They were all men in their 20s and 30s.
“I came after seeing Sam Altman tweet about the launch,” said Moses Serumaga, 37.
Image caption: “It’s good to be ahead of these things,” Moses Serumaga said after having his iris scanned in exchange for crypto tokens.
“I saw that you could make some dollars, so I thought: why not? It could die like other crypto projects or it could be a big thing and go up in value. I didn’t want to lose it,” he said.
Tom, 23, also had his eyeball scanned, but said he didn’t do it for the money because he doesn’t think the value of the tokens will increase.
“I don’t think that amount of money is enough of an incentive unless you live in less developed nations and I don’t think there’s much chance of it increasing any further,” he said.
The scanning process proved controversial reports criticizing some of the tactics used by orbital operators who get paid on commission, with particular concern for those signing up in poorer nations.
Privacy experts also fear that sensitive data collected from a person’s iris scan could end up in the wrong hands, although Worldcoin insists that no data is stored.
Image source, Getty Images
Image caption, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin wrote a lengthy blog about his concerns and optimism about Worldcoin
Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of the cryptocurrency network Ethereum, responded to the launch of Worldcoin by expressing enthusiasm for the project but also issuing a warning about its potential pitfalls.
“Overall, despite the ‘dystopian vibe’ of staring into a sphere and letting it scan deep into your eyes, it appears that specialized hardware systems can do a pretty decent job of protecting privacy,” he said.
However, he also says that relying on specialized spheres to perform the scans could give Worldcoin too much power and make it difficult to engage the world.
Twitter founder and cryptocurrency enthusiast Jack Dorsey tweeted an apparent critique of the project, describing its mission as “cute” and adding the dystopian warning: “Visit the Orb or the Orb will visit you…”
Altman welcomed the criticism, saying online that “haters” energize his team. But he admitted that the project was ambitious.
“Maybe it works and maybe it doesn’t, but trying stuff like this is how progress happens,” he tweeted.