With the ChatGPT boom, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, the company behind its development, has made a name for himself. The cryptocurrency project he co-founded in 2021 has recently become active again, and today announced its latest progress.

Debuting with the aim of achieving a "universal basic income"

The project, called "Worldcoin," was first made public in June 2021 and announced a $25 million round of funding from a16z, Coinbase Ventures, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, Day One Ventures and several other prominent investors.

According to the report, Worldcoin plans to issue a global digital currency that scans irises to form a unique personal identifier to identify individuals through a silver device (Orb) it developed that resembles a basketball. The iris scan is said to prevent duplicate registrations, but to ensure privacy, Worldcoin will try to be as transparent as possible about how the data is used, and the image will be permanently deleted after the scan is completed.

At the time, Worldcoin had already begun testing the device on a small scale in several cities, and because it had not yet been officially released, Worldcoin paid volunteers in cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin in exchange for some feedback on its use. Less than 20 prototypes of the device reportedly cost $5,000 currently, but the cost will drop significantly as the process improves.

Altman said in an interview that he was inspired in late 2019 by the popular economic theory of "universal basic income" (UBI), which uses cryptocurrencies to distribute money fairly. Worldcoin's first investor, but he says he is not involved in the day-to-day operations of the company, but mainly acts as an advisor when needed.

The actual head of the project is Alexander Blania, who co-founded Worldcoin with Altman and Max Novendstern, who previously worked at Ray Dalio's investment arm Bridgewater Associates LP and at money transfer startup Wave. Blania says the company is evaluating how it can one day get as many people as possible to use cryptocurrencies: "There are still a lot of people in the world who are not yet in the financial system, and cryptocurrencies have the opportunity to allow us to do that."

In October of that year, Worldcoin said it was field-testing in some areas, and by then the project was already valued at $1 billion.

The ideal is rich, the reality is bleak, and the follow-up is difficult

In March 2022, Worldcoin suspended plans to operate in several countries after local contractors left and regulations banned operations, and repeatedly postponed its target launch date.

At the time, the company had collected eye images from hundreds of thousands of people in about 20 countries, but the process had been plagued by uneven smartphone usage, user confusion and fraud attempts across the region.

Nevertheless, Worldcoin is still trying to raise more money to move forward with its plans. Reports indicated that the company was in the midst of a $100 million token funding round at a $3 billion valuation.

In August of the same year, Worldcoin co-founder and CEO Max Novendstern left the company and founded the startup Mana, which aims to build an AI venture capital protocol that operates autonomously on the chain.

Since then, Worldcoin has remained silent - both on the project's development progress and on the funding process.

Nearly forgotten, Worldcoin has come out again this year, and in early February it was reported to be in discussions with investors, including sovereign wealth funds, for a new round of funding. The round will include both equity and token financing. The size of this round is certainly impressive in the current market environment.

Setting Sail Again, Rooting for the Protocol Level

A month after the news of the funding round was revealed, Worldcoin announced an update on the project, including the World ID protocol and software development kit (SDK).

Described as Worldcoin's "underlying identity protocol," powered by zero-knowledge cryptography, World ID is a mobile tool that people can use to prove their identity without sacrificing anonymity. Orb, the iris-scanning hardware, is the primary method for users to obtain authentication, although they can also use tools such as phone number verification, which is less accurate.

"It's a decentralized and privacy-first protocol," Tiago Sada, head of product, engineering and design at Tools For Humanity, a major software contributor to Worldcoin, said in an interview, "just like people can have self-hosted wallet, with it, people can have self-custodial IDs where any information is on the device and it authenticates itself through zero-knowledge proof."

Users can get World ID on any compatible mobile wallet. one option is the World App, which is still in beta.

Orb verification is now limited primarily to Argentina, Chile, India, Kenya, Portugal and Spain, with a broader rollout of the device coming later this year. In the meantime, mobile verification is available in most countries.

The simplest use case for World ID is login (i.e., identity verification). Other potential use cases for the technology include bot protection and auditing in social networks, voting in DAOs, supporting unsecured loans, loyalty programs and coupons, marketplace reviews, and benefit distribution. The first demonstration of the technology will focus on validation of Discord.

"It may take more imagination to think about what you can do with it. When the iPhone came out, you couldn't even think about Uber," Sada added, "It's kind of the basic original language. It will always be there. And Worldcoin is all about making sure it exists in a way that is decentralized and protects privacy."

As for the SDK, developers have been invited to sign up to a waiting list for early access to a beta version of the product, which is open to anyone and includes a widget, developer portal, development simulator, examples and guides.

Marching through controversy

Once user identity is involved, privacy is bound to be the number one concern, and Orb's June 2021 release drew strong opposition from leading privacy advocates, including Edward Snowden, who warned against using biometric data for anything, adding that the human body is not a "ticket puncher ".

Worldcoin later tried to alleviate these concerns by using zero-knowledge proof technology to eliminate the link between the biometric registration phase and the wallet. However, Sada believes concerns about the project remain.

"There's still a lot of misunderstanding," he says, "and a lot of people don't know that your biometric data gets destroyed in Orb." That is, unless users choose to store their own biometric data - which, while it would help improve the protocol, Worldcoin does not encourage users to do so.

"The iris code is the only thing that leaves the device," Sada continues, "and while that sounds a bit dubious, World ID is really the most private of identities. I think it's also the most inclusive and scalable in many ways."

Sada also says that if there were a better tool for proving a person's uniqueness, Worldcoin would drop Orb without a second thought, given the limitations of the manufacturing hardware. in fact, Tools for Humanity has a team that is actively looking for such a solution.

But for now, development of Orb continues, and Worldcoin is ramping up distribution of Orb through an operator program that offers rewards. According to an official announcement made today, Worldcoin currently has 1.3 million registered users.

However, Sam Altman, Worldcoin's biggest "light", has yet to make any statements. As mentioned earlier, Altman has stated that he is not involved in the day-to-day operations of the company, but mainly serves as an advisor to the company when needed. Still, his presence raises expectations that once Worldcoin and AI are combined, something new will emerge.

With this major announcement, we'll have to wait and see if Worldcoin can successfully complete its funding and even launch - the crypto industry is in desperate need of good news like this right now.

With the ChatGPT boom, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, the company behind its development, has made a name for himself. The cryptocurrency project he co-founded in 2021 has recently become active again, and today announced its latest progress.

Debuting with the aim of achieving a "universal basic income"

The project, called "Worldcoin," was first made public in June 2021 and announced a $25 million round of funding from a16z, Coinbase Ventures, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, Day One Ventures and several other prominent investors.

According to the report, Worldcoin plans to issue a global digital currency that scans irises to form a unique personal identifier to identify individuals through a silver device (Orb) it developed that resembles a basketball. The iris scan is said to prevent duplicate registrations, but to ensure privacy, Worldcoin will try to be as transparent as possible about how the data is used, and the image will be permanently deleted after the scan is completed.

At the time, Worldcoin had already begun testing the device on a small scale in several cities, and because it had not yet been officially released, Worldcoin paid volunteers in cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin in exchange for some feedback on its use. Less than 20 prototypes of the device reportedly cost $5,000 currently, but the cost will drop significantly as the process improves.

Altman said in an interview that he was inspired in late 2019 by the popular economic theory of "universal basic income" (UBI), which uses cryptocurrencies to distribute money fairly. Worldcoin's first investor, but he says he is not involved in the day-to-day operations of the company, but mainly acts as an advisor when needed.

The actual head of the project is Alexander Blania, who co-founded Worldcoin with Altman and Max Novendstern, who previously worked at Ray Dalio's investment arm Bridgewater Associates LP and at money transfer startup Wave. Blania says the company is evaluating how it can one day get as many people as possible to use cryptocurrencies: "There are still a lot of people in the world who are not yet in the financial system, and cryptocurrencies have the opportunity to allow us to do that."

In October of that year, Worldcoin said it was field-testing in some areas, and by then the project was already valued at $1 billion.

The ideal is rich, the reality is bleak, and the follow-up is difficult

In March 2022, Worldcoin suspended plans to operate in several countries after local contractors left and regulations banned operations, and repeatedly postponed its target launch date.

At the time, the company had collected eye images from hundreds of thousands of people in about 20 countries, but the process had been plagued by uneven smartphone usage, user confusion and fraud attempts across the region.

Nevertheless, Worldcoin is still trying to raise more money to move forward with its plans. Reports indicated that the company was in the midst of a $100 million token funding round at a $3 billion valuation.

In August of the same year, Worldcoin co-founder and CEO Max Novendstern left the company and founded the startup Mana, which aims to build an AI venture capital protocol that operates autonomously on the chain.

Since then, Worldcoin has remained silent - both on the project's development progress and on the funding process.

Nearly forgotten, Worldcoin has come out again this year, and in early February it was reported to be in discussions with investors, including sovereign wealth funds, for a new round of funding. The round will include both equity and token financing. The size of this round is certainly impressive in the current market environment.

Setting Sail Again, Rooting for the Protocol Level

A month after the news of the funding round was revealed, Worldcoin announced an update on the project, including the World ID protocol and software development kit (SDK).

Described as Worldcoin's "underlying identity protocol," powered by zero-knowledge cryptography, World ID is a mobile tool that people can use to prove their identity without sacrificing anonymity. Orb, the iris-scanning hardware, is the primary method for users to obtain authentication, although they can also use tools such as phone number verification, which is less accurate.

"It's a decentralized and privacy-first protocol," Tiago Sada, head of product, engineering and design at Tools For Humanity, a major software contributor to Worldcoin, said in an interview, "just like people can have self-hosted wallet, with it, people can have self-custodial IDs where any information is on the device and it authenticates itself through zero-knowledge proof."

Users can get World ID on any compatible mobile wallet. one option is the World App, which is still in beta.

Orb verification is now limited primarily to Argentina, Chile, India, Kenya, Portugal and Spain, with a broader rollout of the device coming later this year. In the meantime, mobile verification is available in most countries.

The simplest use case for World ID is login (i.e., identity verification). Other potential use cases for the technology include bot protection and auditing in social networks, voting in DAOs, supporting unsecured loans, loyalty programs and coupons, marketplace reviews, and benefit distribution. The first demonstration of the technology will focus on validation of Discord.

"It may take more imagination to think about what you can do with it. When the iPhone came out, you couldn't even think about Uber," Sada added, "It's kind of the basic original language. It will always be there. And Worldcoin is all about making sure it exists in a way that is decentralized and protects privacy."

As for the SDK, developers have been invited to sign up to a waiting list for early access to a beta version of the product, which is open to anyone and includes a widget, developer portal, development simulator, examples and guides.

Marching through controversy

Once user identity is involved, privacy is bound to be the number one concern, and Orb's June 2021 release drew strong opposition from leading privacy advocates, including Edward Snowden, who warned against using biometric data for anything, adding that the human body is not a "ticket puncher ".

Worldcoin later tried to alleviate these concerns by using zero-knowledge proof technology to eliminate the link between the biometric registration phase and the wallet. However, Sada believes concerns about the project remain.

"There's still a lot of misunderstanding," he says, "and a lot of people don't know that your biometric data gets destroyed in Orb." That is, unless users choose to store their own biometric data - which, while it would help improve the protocol, Worldcoin does not encourage users to do so.

"The iris code is the only thing that leaves the device," Sada continues, "and while that sounds a bit dubious, World ID is really the most private of identities. I think it's also the most inclusive and scalable in many ways."

Sada also says that if there were a better tool for proving a person's uniqueness, Worldcoin would drop Orb without a second thought, given the limitations of the manufacturing hardware. in fact, Tools for Humanity has a team that is actively looking for such a solution.

But for now, development of Orb continues, and Worldcoin is ramping up distribution of Orb through an operator program that offers rewards. According to an official announcement made today, Worldcoin currently has 1.3 million registered users.

However, Sam Altman, Worldcoin's biggest "light", has yet to make any statements. As mentioned earlier, Altman has stated that he is not involved in the day-to-day operations of the company, but mainly serves as an advisor to the company when needed. Still, his presence raises expectations that once Worldcoin and AI are combined, something new will emerge.

With this major announcement, we'll have to wait and see if Worldcoin can successfully complete its funding and even launch - the crypto industry is in desperate need of good news like this right now.