Worldcoin is working on a project that uses a tool called Orb to scan a person's retina and use it to exchange coins. Such a scheme might seem like a lot of science fiction, or it might sound absurd. And it can lead to a fairly dystopian picture of privacy issues.
However, Worldcoin announced on Thursday that it had raised a total of $25 million from major investors (A16Z, Coinbase Ventures, Digital Currency Group) and billionaire angel investors Sam Bankman-Fried and Reid Hoffman (Linkedin Co-founder). . This brings the company value to $1B ($1 billion).
According to the company's business forecasting model, a total of 1 billion people will be using the Orb by 2023. Worldcoin is headquartered in Berlin, Germany, and currently employs a total of 70 people. A total of 30 real Orbs have been produced so far.
The detailed user inflow and usability through the clear connection of the block chain and Orb should be further confirmed and specified, but as of the known examples so far, people called “Orb Operators” are using Orb in remote villages, university campuses, subway stations, etc. Take Orb and convince people to join Worldcoin by scanning their retina.
The privacy issue will be presented more and more strongly, but the company's current statement states that no pictures of the retina are stored anywhere and that they use zero-knowledge proofs to keep user information safe.
From November of this year, it announced plans to produce 4000 Orbs per month.
The manufacturer is expected to be in Germany, but it seems possible that the owner is Chinese.
When you sign up, you will receive free coins and will likely be up to 200$. Worldcoin works as Layer 2 of the Ethereum network. The total issuance is 10 billion.
Source: Coindesk
I am always sceptical of these types of technologies that pose a risk to privacy, I do not understand how they can say that no copy of your retina will be held on any database.
Yet without one being stored somewhere they could not verify a user or orb operator.
I understand there is big money in finding the next big tech applications for such devices, although I think they have highly over overestimated its use volume by 2023.
Most crypto enthusiasts I know are very protective of their privacy, especially with personal data.
it is probably aimed at a market under totalitarian control, which would make sense that it is possible that the owner could be chinese.
People still don't fully understand the true value these companies can harvest from such data, especially from the medical feild and big pharma.
$200 may get those that have fallen on hard times and don't comprehend the value of such data to sign up.
But I can't see any serious investors or even enthusiasts giving this data up lightly. I know I certainly wouldn't. I won't even use an exchange that requires KYC Lol...
Thanks for sharing this information, it paints a clear picture of where some people would like our future to be headed.