ChatGPT Founder Sam Altman Launches Worldcoin Cryptocurrency Project

The Worldcoin project from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has officially launched. This is another blockchain-based digital payment system that promises to revolutionize the world of finance. Its main difference from hundreds of similar projects is, perhaps, Orb – a ball that scans the iris of the eye to identify users. And this is the only working function of the project so far.

Worldcoin Foundation, founded three years ago by Sam Altman and Alex Blania, on Monday announced about the launch of the Worldcoin cryptocurrency project.

The project team immediately stated its goals: “We believe that, if successful, Worldcoin will significantly increase economic opportunity, spread a reliable solution for distinguishing people from artificial intelligence on the Internet while maintaining privacy, contribute to global democratic processes, and ultimately indicate how to move towards the distribution of an unconditional basic income using AI.”

In other words, Worldcoin, according to the assurances of the developers, should bring economic prosperity, freedom, equality and protection from fraud.

The Worldcoin ecosystem consists of three main components: the World ID digital identifier, the World App mobile application, and the Worldcoin token (WLD).

It is assumed that users will be able to make all kinds of financial transactions through the application World App. To do this, each user must first go through the identification procedure. And this is perhaps the most intriguing element of Worldcoin. The lightning-fast spread of AI models, provoked, among other things, by the success of ChatGPT from OpenAI by Sam Altman himself, has led to the fact that it has become almost impossible to distinguish a person from a chatbot on the Internet. And the new project of Mr. Altman should solve the problem provoked by his previous project.

The solution has a name – Orb (English “ball, sphere”). This futuristic-looking device weighing 2.8 kg will scan the user’s iris using built-in cameras supported by a neural network. It will be possible to make transactions in Worldcoin only after passing the identification procedure. The company has begun shipping its devices around the world, but so far they are available in 35 cities in 20 countries.

A breakthrough, it would seem, solution has already turned out to be far from being as reliable as one might assume. Back in May edition Blockbeats reported that residents of China, unable to register, buy scans of the iris made by residents of Cambodia and various African countries where these devices have already appeared, for as little as $30.

Those who come to the place where there is an Orb and have passed the iris recognition procedure will be assigned a unique ID and 25 WLD tokens will be credited. But not to everyone, but only to residents of those countries where it is not prohibited by law. By the way, due to the fear of facing legal problems, the creators of the project decided not to launch Worldcoin in the United States yet. “When we first conceived this project, we did not think that in the end we would get a “token of the whole world, except for the USA,” but it turned out just like that,” Mr. Altman said in an interview. Financial Times.- I would say that 95% of the world’s population does not live in the United States. So the US does not create or destroy such a project.”

WLD tokens will be used to participate in voting on the future of the project, pay for services within Worldcoin and make payments. At the same time, it will be possible to make purchases through the World App mobile application using traditional currencies. But all this will come later.

So far, Worldcoin has a base of 2 million potential users waiting to register, and $250 million raised by the project from venture capital investors. And the leaders of Worldcoin intend to continue making money on their project. “All of our products are for profit. There will be many more different wallets and functions that will bring money,” Alex Blania told the FT. He also mentioned that Worldcoin will hold up to 20% of the issued tokens in order to use these funds to produce Orb and develop the project ecosystem.

Kirill Sarkhanyants