After 18 months of beta testing and 2 million people signing up for Worldcoin, the tokens were officially launched this week onto crypto exchanges, according to a statement sent to The Chainsaw. The minting of the Worldcoin token (WLD) was distributed to the millions of people who joined at the beta stage, as long as they are eligible to receive the tokens. WLD is now transactable on the blockchain. The coin is a crypto project of ChatGPT’s Sam Altman.
On Monday 24th of July, the price reached a high of US$3.31 (AU$4.87), however by the time of writing, the price had sunk to US$2.27 (AU$3.34), a fall of 31.4%.
The way that people can sign up for the Worldcoin project involves scanning an eyeball using a futuristic orb. The swapping of biometric data for crypto has proved to be controversial, especially seeing the crypto project was using orb operators in less-developed countries. But, do we trust this technology?
Crypto enthusiasts don’t need to sign up with the orb to own the crypto, you can buy it from exchanges. But to access the WorldID and receive free Worldcoin you have to make time with an orb.
Worldcoin Founders
As mentioned, the Worldcoin project was founded by ChatGPT’s Sam Altman, plus Alex Blania and third founder Max Novendstern. They say that the Worldcoin project “aims to increase economic opportunity and enable global democratic processes in the Age of AI.”
Blania, said, “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 decentralised way.”
Worldcoin estimates that 4.4. billion people “lack a legal, digitally-verifiable identity. As a result, participation in the global economy and access to critical services like government aid, financial services and healthcare are drastically limited.”
The decentralised identity and financial network “was designed to distinguish humans from AI online. And, also it will provide “a potential path for AI-funded universal basic income (UBI).”
There are three parts to the project:
World ID: You get your eyeball scanned to prove you are human, via an orb. The orb turns your iris scan into a series of numbers, then that becomes your ID. The organisation claims it will dump your actual biometric information, and only use the numbers as a code. This is your World ID.
World tokens: This is the cryptocurrency of the Worldcoin project. Once people have signed up via an orb, they can be issued the World tokens, or Worldcoins, as long as they are eligible. This, they say, will start happening from today.
World App: This is the digital wallet that holds Worldcoins. It promises gas-free transactions with a verified World ID and will be available in 120 countries.
The project now has two million users. It doesn’t come close to the amount of people who hold Bitcoin, at 219 million. However, of the people who hold Bitcoin, only around 300,000 people use it every day.
Worldcoin: Plans for World domination
Even though the World tokens are being distributed today to people who have already scanned their eyeballs, there are not any plans to slow down sign-ups. Orbs will continue to appear in 35 cities across 20 countries through to the end of 2023.
Here is the hit list of cities where people can sign up to the token created by Sam Altman, according to the statement from Worldcoin.
Africa/Middle East
Dubai
Kampala
Nairobi
Americas
Bariloche
Bogota
Buenos Aires
Cordoba
Los Angeles
Mar del Plata
Mexico City
Miami
Monterrey
New York
Rio de Janeiro
Santiago
San Francisco
São Paulo
Asia
Bangalore
Delhi
Ho Chi Minh City
Hong Kong
Manila
Seoul
Singapore
Tokyo
Europe
Barcelona
Berlin
Bilbao
Lisbon
London
Madrid
Munich
Palma de Mallorca
Paris
Porto
Sevilla
Valencia
Warsaw
