Juliet BThe idea of a universal basic income is not new and some projects are trying to implement it with cryptocurrencies. Among these projects, there is one that is by far the most controversial. This is the project called WorldCoin which promises to distribute cryptocurrencies to everyone in the world, without any restrictions.
Si WorldCoin is controversial, it is not so much for the idea of distributing income in cryptocurrencies as for the way in which the company intends to go about it. The problem lies in the means and not in the end. Indeed, Worldcoin proposes to "scan" the eyes of each participant to be able to create a unique digital identity. Just as the fingerprint is used to identify people in the administrative register, the iris would be used by WorldCoin to be able to identify each person uniquely.
It did not take long for some to see a risk of mass surveillance and an obstruction of fundamental freedoms.
Is WorldCoin a new tool of a Big Brother digital or is it an innovative and ambitious project in terms of digital identity that should be analyzed objectively?
What is the objective of the WorldCoin project?
Wordlcoin is largely funded and supported by “ Tools for Humanity", a technology software development company founded in 2020 in California. The CEO and co-founder Alex Blania, launched WorldCoin with the aim of increasing mass adoption by bringing cryptocurrencies to everyone.
WordCoin is currently led by Sam Altman, a former member of Y Combinator, one of Silicon Valley's largest startup incubators. Sam Altman is best known for being the co-founder of the OpenAI platform, which developed ChatGPT.
In order to avoid registration fraud, WorldCoin has decided to implement a radical way to verify the identities of participants. This is what is called "Proof-of-Personhood" (PoP) which consists of digitizing identities by scanning the eyes of participants. WorldCoin has developed a dedicated device called "Orb" which scans the irises of each participant, in order to avoid the creation of multiple accounts by a single person. Once the iris is scanned, the user is eligible and can download the organization's wallet to receive WorldCoin cryptocurrencies.
WorldCoin has already scanned the iris and collected the personal data of more than 1 people today, all over the world, and mainly in Europe and Latin America. The organization continually recruits new people to carry out the scans, around the world by providing them with orbs.
People who scanned their irises received between $20 and $25, including $5 in Worldcoin (WDC) tokens. The Worldcoin token is a token of ERC-20 standard, developed on the Ethereum blockchain. The token is not listed (at the moment) on exchange platforms and its price is not available on cryptographic data providers.
How is Worldcoin problematic?
WorldCoin has generated numerous controversies based on fears of commercial use of biometric data and the risks of hacking it. THE launcher Edward Snowden, was critical of the project and denounced on Twitter the practice considered fallacious and dangerous by WorldCoin.
He recalled that personal biometric data can be stolen by people with bad intentions. Indeed, according to the project, the zero-knowledge proof protocol (zero-knowledge proofs), which allows data to be made anonymous, would only be applied during "Phase 2" of the project's development. Thus, in the meantime, the data of individuals who have agreed to scan their irises are potentially exposed to hacking risks. Some advocate the use of other solutions to verify unique identities such as " soulbound » token for example.
To defend themselves, the founders of WorldCoin specify that this is a less dangerous collection of information than that which is collected when a person browses the internet. The photo taken by the orb machine is converted and encrypted into a digital code. The digital code is not linked to the crypto wallet of the user or his transactions. Worldcoin claimed that “Unlike companies that ask you for a ton of personal information, your eye scan will be all the information the orb needs to deliver your cryptocurrency reward.”
Even more, the founders affirm that the retinal fingerprint is ideal for certifying a person's identity. RIS recognition is approximately 10,000 times more accurate than facial recognition.
This seems to be what particularly interests investment funds, such as Coinbase, Andreessen Horowitz or Khosla Ventures which injected more than 125 million dollars to launch the project.
Will Worldcoin achieve its goal?
In the first descriptions of the project, WorldCoin appears to be a humanist project, with the desire to distribute a basic income to all inhabitants of this planet. In absolute terms, the retinal scan could be interesting from a technological point of view, if it really turns out to be more practical and more relevant than the fingerprint or easy recognition.
However, upon closer inspection, the idea of scanning one's eye to prove one's identity remains very problematic, in several respects. From a philosophical and moral point of view, the collection of personal information by a private company also raises the question of legitimacy. Can a private company owned by investors possess biometric information without the issue of privacy being called into question? What about the guarantee that the data is not exploited for commercial purposes, for example?
Furthermore, beyond the biometric fingerprint, it is also the question of the business model that is lacking. To distribute a basic income, it is still necessary to deploy a substantial financial resource. Sam Altman told Wired that revenue could come from profits made by activities linked to artificial intelligence. However, this still remains unclear and unconvincing according to Anna Stone, member of the NGO “ Good Dollar » which also has the mission of offering a universal basic income in cryptocurrency.
Even more, the fact that the founder of the project is also the founder of OpenAi may make us fear that the data collected by WorldCoin will also be exploited by artificial intelligence. Will the Worldcoin token be a cryptocurrency based on artificial intelligence (AI)? We do not know the real intentions of the founder and the connections with other projects related to Artificial Intelligence.
Finally, some also criticize the ambition to make WorldCoin a universal currency, to the extent that the cryptocurrency bitcoin seems entirely relevant to have this role and this function. Unlike WorldCoin, Bitcoin is a decentralized currency, which does not collect any personal data and which has provided for over a decade a solid financial system accessible to everyone...
For further :
- Finally, a cryptocurrency for everyone on the planet, Wired
- Deception, exploited workers, and cash handouts: How Worldcoin recruited its first half a million test users, MIT
- Bitcoin, an alternative to traditional payment systems
- Bitcoin is Pseudonymous: 5 Ways to Reveal Your Identity
- Without women, Bitcoin cannot become a “universal currency”
- What is an LNURL address and how do I get one?
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