Jack Kubinec

The iris-scanning identification platform Worldcoin plans to launch a layer-2 later this summer, the project announced Wednesday morning.&nbsp;



Currently, Worldcoin runs on the popular Ethereum rollup Optimism. Worldcoin’s layer-2, named World Chain, will be built using Optimism’s software set, the OP Stack. World Chain will use its proof of personhood technology alongside financial incentives to try making it harder for bots to turn a profit.



Worldcoin is a Sam Altman-backed startup using biometric data to, in the project’s telling, distribute a universal currency and verify humanness in the age of AI. Worldcoin <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/worldcoin-not-in-us">launched over the summer</a> and just recently <a href="https://worldcoin.org/blog/announcements/tfh-world-app-passes-10-million-users">surpassed</a> ten million users on its World App wallet.&nbsp;



<a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/worldcoin">Worldcoin</a> says with the growing usage, its current blockchain home is getting a bit cramped. Tiago Sada, the head of product, engineering and design at Worldcoin developer Tools For Humanity, <a href="https://dune.com/queries/3251203/5440632?Chain+List_e71750=OP+Mainnet&amp;Summary+-+Trailing+Num+Days_n26d66=14">told</a> Blockworks that approximately 43% of all activity on Optimism is currently related to Worldcoin.



In an interview with Blockworks, <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/optimism">Optimism</a> Chief Growth Officer Ryan Wyatt said Worldcoin migrating from Optimism to the OP stack “builds on the momentum” the software has seen with partners also including Base and ZORA. Projects built with the OP Stack share 2.5% of sequencer revenue with the Optimism Foundation, Wyatt added.&nbsp;



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/evm-smart-contract-deployments-optimism">Two-thirds of EVM smart contract deployments in 2024 are from Optimism: Report</a>



There are many <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/layer-2-2">layer-2s</a> at this point, but Worldcoin thinks it can distinguish itself by prioritizing human transactions over bots. Bots and World Chain “power users” will pay&nbsp; slightly more in gas fees to subsidize gas for casual users, most of whom only transact on-chain a couple of times per month, Sada said.&nbsp;



Trading bots are popular in crypto for things like executing trades faster or carrying out automated strategies. A slew of DEX bots tracked by a Dune <a href="https://dune.com/whale_hunter/dex-trading-bot-wars">dashboard</a> did $131 million in daily volume over the past seven days.&nbsp;



Bots can make blockchains less workable for human users though. Bot-related spam is partially <a href="https://x.com/0xMert_/status/1776023674098754014">culpable</a> for Solana’s recent congestion woes, for example.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/solana-network-congestion-transaction-volume">Solana’s cheap fees are turning out to be a curse — for now</a>



The Worldcoin Foundation, a non-profit supporting Worldcoin’s development, will collect the higher gas fees from bots and redistribute them to humans, Sada noted.&nbsp;



“It&#8217;s not even a fair competition,” Sada said of bots trading against humans. “All blockspace goes to bots and then just the [leftovers] can go to humans, and so we want to flip that.”



On World Chain, humans will not only pay less in gas fees but will also be “prioritized for faster confirmation times,” according to a press release.&nbsp;



Worldcoin hopes its bot disincentivization will drive more organic usage on its layer-2. Iris-scanned World App users get WLD airdropped to them every two weeks — and WLD will be used as a gas token on World Chain. Worldcoin’s core team will focus on developing an ecosystem of real-world apps focused around things like payments, stablecoins and identity, Sada said.&nbsp;



Still, Worldcoin’s anti-bot focus could strip the layer-2 of a large driver of trading volume on blockchains.&nbsp;



Bots can create a revenue stream that Worldcoin might lose, Wyatt conceded, but he noted: “If you think about Worldcoin prioritizing humans and actually having ten million users, it&#8217;s not crazy to see them get to 100 million, 300 million users in the future.”



“Maybe there&#8217;s short term opportunities that they miss out on revenue, but you&#8217;ve got to play the long ball here and they are well positioned to do so,” Wyatt said.&nbsp;



WLD tokens currently <a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/worldcoin">trade</a> at around $4.94, per CoinGecko. The project’s idea of a universal basic income may be seeing some promising early returns: One user recently used his WLD to <a href="https://x.com/tiagosada/status/1775646587857039662">buy</a> himself a goat. 



But it hasn’t been all sunshine and farm animals in Worldcoin land. The platform continues to face regulatory scrutiny over its data collection methods. Worldcoin is <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/worldcoin-taking-legal-action-against-spain">battling a temporary block</a> on its data collection in Spain. Portugal similarly issued a temporary <a href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/sam-altmans-worldcoin-ordered-stop-data-collection-portugal-2024-03-26/">halt</a> on Worldcoin data collection late last month. <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/worldcoin-kenya-regulators">Regulators in France, Germany, and Kenya</a> have also expressed concerns about Worldcoin.



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Worldcoin teases ‘World Chain’ layer-2

Sam Altman-backed Worldcoin has met skepticism for its eye-scanning Orb, a device it uses to create biometrically unique accounts for its more than four million users. But in a show of transparency, Worldcoin is making the core software undergirding the Orb open source to the public, they announced in a blog post Friday morning.



The Orb’s transition to open source has been a gradual one. Worldcoin had previously released details on the device’s hardware and made its iris recognition component open source, but hadn’t given the public details about its main software.&nbsp;



This latest open-sourcing of the Orb’s core functionality gives a peek into how the Orb converts iris scans into unique verifications within the Tools For Humanity-created World App. However, the Orb’s main application does have some code removed from the internal version. The removed bits of code relate to fraud checks, the blog post said.&nbsp;



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/worldcoin-kenya-regulators">Worldcoin to continue working with regulators after international controversy</a>



<a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/worldcoin">Worldcoin</a> was co-founded by Altman alongside Max Novendstern and Alex Blania in 2019. The project, whose tokens are currently unavailable to US residents, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/worldcoin-not-in-us">launched in July</a> worldwide. Although US residents can’t access Worldcoin’s WLD tokens, part of the project’s eventual plan to create a global basic income, they can still have their eyeballs scanned and create a World ID in the app.



Worldcoin’s Orbs scan individuals’ irises to create unique IDs. It also <a href="https://worldcoin.org/blog/worldcoin/what-is-worldcoin-how-does-it-work">distributes</a> its WLD token to users “just for being a unique individual.” Altman and Blania <a href="https://worldcoin.org/blog/worldcoin/introducing-worldcoin-alex-blania-sam-altman">cast</a> Worldcoin last summer as a potential path to an <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/artificial-intelligence">AI</a>-enabled scheme for universal basic income.&nbsp;



2,000 Orbs exist, and they are manufactured in Europe, according to a spokesperson for The Worldcoin Foundation, a non-profit supporting Worldcoin’s development. The Orb is built with the NVIDIA Jetson, a popular computer board for embedded applications.&nbsp;



Worldcoin faces a challenge in convincing lawmakers it can be trusted, in the project’s ideal scenario, with biometric data for most or all adults in the world.&nbsp;



Speaking with an Orb engineer over the summer, one Blockworks journalist <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/worldcoin-eyeballs-scan-brooklyn">discovered </a>that if you cut off someone’s face, including gouging out their eyes, and then draped it over your own face, you could register as them with a Worldcoin scanner and steal their identity. The Orb engineer promised that the team had not tested this particular edge case, but said that it would work.



Regulators from several governments have raised <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/privacy">privacy</a> concerns regarding Worldcoin. Spain began a temporary block on Worldcoin data collection <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/world-coin-temporarily-blocked-spain">earlier this month</a>. Worldcoin <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/worldcoin-taking-legal-action-against-spain">retaliated with a lawsuit</a> over what it says is an unjustified ban.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Worldcoin emphasizes that its World IDs are kept private from developers through <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/zero-knowledge-proof">zero-knowledge proofs</a>, which can verify someone’s ID is real without needing to reveal their identity. Individuals’ data is also encrypted in such a way that only they can decrypt it from within the World App, Worldcoin has said.



With most of the Orb’s software being made public, the main components of the Worldcoin ecosystem <a href="https://worldcoin.org/open-source">yet</a> to be open-sourced are the World App where World IDs are stored, and the uniqueness service, a piece of the Orb that verifies only unique humans are added to the platform.&nbsp;



Along with the core, Worldcoin also released some of the code for its secure element, which stores a private signing key that protects user data. The secure element is cryptographically paired to the NVIDIA Jetson during manufacturing.&nbsp;



With the code behind Worldcoin’s Orb and iris scanning technology being made open source, Worldcoin’s foundation is <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-patents-open-source-ethos">fine with the tech being built on by others</a>.&nbsp;



“The Worldcoin Foundation welcomes additional, responsible development of proof of humanness verification hardware which is in part why hardware and software components of the Orb have been open-sourced,” the spokesperson said.



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Worldcoin continues gradual open sourcing by sharing Orb core code

Katherine Ross

Worldcoin told Blockworks on Friday that it plans to take legal action against Spain after a Spanish data protection agency moved to block data collection from the Sam Altman-backed company earlier this week.



“Worldcoin is fully compliant with all laws and regulations governing biometric data collection and data transfer, including Europe&#8217;s General Data Protection Regulation (&#8220;GDPR&#8221;). As such, we have been in consistent and ongoing dialog with our lead Data Privacy Authority in the EU, BayLDA, for months. We were disappointed that the Spanish regulator circumvented the accepted EU process and rules, which leaves us little recourse but to file suit,” Worldcoin told Blockworks via email.



In a blog post, Worldcoin reiterated that it has “regularly responded to BayLDA requests for months” and has operated “lawfully” in Spain and other European countries.&nbsp;



Tools for Humanity announced the suit, per the blog <a href="https://worldcoin.org/blog/worldcoin/worldcoin-aepd-spain">post</a>.&nbsp;



<a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/worldcoin">Worldcoin</a> assured users that its World App remains available in Spain despite the verification service pause.&nbsp;



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/world-coin-temporarily-blocked-spain">Spanish data protection agency moves to temporarily block Worldcoin</a>



The Spanish data protection agency (AEPD) gave Worldcoin 72 hours to comply with the order to pause data collection and to destroy already collected data.



“The AEPD has received several complaints against this company about insufficient information, the collection of data from minors and the fact that consent cannot be withdrawn, among other infringements,” a press release from AEPD said.



Worldcoin’s Jannick Preiwisch told Blockworks at the time that the agency was “circumventing <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/eu">EU</a> law” with the measure.&nbsp;



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/worldcoin-crypto-mainstream">Worldcoin is not what we meant by making crypto mainstream</a>



“This decision is based on exceptional circumstances, where it is necessary to adopt precautionary measures aimed at the immediate cessation of the processing activities to prevent the possible transfer of data to third parties and to safeguard the fundamental right to the protection of personal data,” the AEPD said. The agency further noted that biometric data is under “special protection” given the “sensitive nature.”



Worldcoin could be barred from further activity for up to three months, according to the AEPD’s press release earlier this week.



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Worldcoin wants to pursue legal action against Spain over data block

Spain’s data protection regulator has asked Worldcoin to stop collecting information and to cease using information it has already collected.&nbsp;



According to a press statement sent to Blockworks, the Spanish data protection agency, AEPD, ordered a “precautionary measure” against Worldcoin’s parent company, Tools for Humanity.&nbsp;



The Financial Times first <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/204c1c81-7a6f-4a6a-907e-8782b9d1bed2">reported</a> the news, adding that Worldcoin was given 72 hours to comply with the order.



The measure orders <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/worldcoin">Worldcoin</a> to stop collecting and processing data, while also ensuring that the data already collected won’t be used.&nbsp;



“For months we have been engaged with Bavarian data protection authority (BayLDA), who are the lead supervisory authority under the GDPR for Worldcoin Foundation and Tools for Humanity. The Spanish data protection authority (AEPD) is circumventing EU law with their actions today, which are limited to Spain and not the broader EU, and spreading inaccurate and misleading claims about our technology globally,” Worldcoin’s Jannick Preiwisch told Blockworks in a statement.&nbsp;



“Our efforts to engage with the AEPD and provide them with an accurate view of Worldcoin and World ID have gone unanswered for months,” Preiwisch continued, adding that Worldcoin is “willing to engage with regulators” to address feedback and questions.



“The AEPD has received several complaints against this company about insufficient information, the collection of data from minors and the fact that consent cannot be withdrawn, among other infringements,” the press release said.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/worldcoin-kenya-regulators">Worldcoin to continue working with regulators after international controversy</a>



The General Data Protection Regulation in <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/spain">Spain</a> protects biometric data protection under “special protection given their sensitive nature.”



“This decision is based on exceptional circumstances, where it is necessary to adopt precautionary measures aimed at the immediate cessation of the processing activities to prevent the possible transfer of data to third parties and to safeguard the fundamental right to the protection of personal data,” the AEPD said.



Worldcoin, according to the order on Wednesday, will be prohibited from further activity in Spain for a “maximum period of three months.”



Last year, Worldcoin faced scrutiny from international regulators, according to multiple reports.



The <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/sam-altman">Sam Altman</a>-backed project had <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/worldcoin-setback-kenya">warehouses in Kenya reportedly raided</a>, while German and French regulators questioned the legality of biometric data collection.



Updated March 6, 2024 at 10:10 am ET: Added comment from Worldcoin.



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Spanish data protection agency moves to temporarily block Worldcoin

Bessie Liu

Sam Altman’s Worldcoin has received renewed interest following the launch of OpenAI’s latest video tool, Sora.



Sora, OpenAI&#8217;s latest innovation in generative AI, leverages artificial intelligence to transform written descriptions into photo realistic video content.



The price of Worldcoin (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/wld">WLD</a>) reached $7.86 over the long weekend and is currently trading at $6.33. According to CoinGecko, the cryptocurrency currently has a fully diluted <a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/worldcoin">valuation</a> of $63 billion, higher than that of the Solana blockchain.



Other <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/artificial-intelligence">AI</a>-related cryptocurrencies have also seen its price increase following Sora’s launch. These include Fetch AI’s FET token, which has seen its price increase by <a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/fetch-ai">39.9%</a> over the past week, and Singularity Studio’s AGIX token, which has seen its token price increase <a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/singularitynet">by</a> 65%.&nbsp;



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ai-startups-increased-funding">Funding Wrap: AI startups score high in 2024 thus far</a>



Alongside the renewed interest in AI tokens, cryptocurrency derivatives exchanges have also seen increased trading volumes following the President&#8217;s Day long weekend in the United States.



Over the past 24 hours, popular centralized exchange <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/binance">Binance</a> has seen its trading volume soar by almost 50%. It currently has a perpetual futures trading volume of a little <a href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/exchanges/binance_futures#futures">under</a> $67 billion and a spot trading volume of almost $23 billion, according to CoinGecko.



Mark Smargon, the CEO of Fuse Network, an EVM-compatible layer-1 solution, told Blockworks that future options and derivatives generate the most volume in the financial system and that it should not be surprising that it also generates the most volume in DeFi.&nbsp;



“It is a form of leverage that is risky from one hand but overall brings efficiency to the market because of all the different trading activity it generates,” Smargon said.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/liquidity-perpetual-options-trading-uniswap">Uniswap-based ‘perpetual options’ protocol tests liquidity waters</a>



However, David Siska, the head of research at Vega Protocol, a derivatives layer for Web3, notes that despite the growth in volume that dated futures have seen recently, this volume is still much dwarfed by the popularity of perpetual futures — which are only available on cryptocurrency exchanges.



“For example, Binance BTC perps have 17 billion 24h volume whereas dated BTC futures have 86 million in volume,” Siska said.



On-chain transfer volumes can also be correlated with Open Interest, Carlos Mercado, a data scientist at on-chain data analytics firm Flipside Crypto, explains.



“These futures accounts often use <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/stablecoins">stablecoins</a> and major tokens as collateral for their margin accounts and earn profit via arbitraging against on-chain <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/dexs">DEXs</a>,” Mercado said. “Coinalyze&#8217;s Bitcoin Open Interest similarly 2x&#8217;d from October 2023 ($7B) to now ($14B) despite being a different basket of tokens and covering different exchanges than my metric.”



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1878" height="1016" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Screenshot-2024-02-20-at-1.18.23-PM.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-80557" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Screenshot-2024-02-20-at-1.18.23-PM.png?w=1878 1878w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Screenshot-2024-02-20-at-1.18.23-PM.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Screenshot-2024-02-20-at-1.18.23-PM.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Screenshot-2024-02-20-at-1.18.23-PM.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Screenshot-2024-02-20-at-1.18.23-PM.png?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Screenshot-2024-02-20-at-1.18.23-PM.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Screenshot-2024-02-20-at-1.18.23-PM.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Screenshot-2024-02-20-at-1.18.23-PM.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Screenshot-2024-02-20-at-1.18.23-PM.png?w=80 80w" sizes="(max-width: 1878px) 100vw, 1878px" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Source: <a href="https://flipsidecrypto.xyz/charliemarketplace/central-exchange-usd-denominated-transfer-volume-kMiCUW" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Flipside Crypto</a></figcaption></figure>



Additionally, he notes that there is a <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/cryptocurrency-investment-bull-market">broader institutional bull market that is building steam</a>, visible across both on-chain and off-chain measures.



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Worldcoin gains renewed interest following launch of OpenAI Sora 

Worldcoin, the crypto project co-created by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, announced that it’s expanding to Singapore.



“After the successful launch of World ID 2.0 and the open sourcing of the Worldcoin iris recognition pipeline in mid December, World ID verifications are now available in Singapore via the Orb, the project’s custom hardware device.”



People in Singapore can now access the project’s Orb, the iris-scanning device, in five locations.&nbsp;



In addition to <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/singapore">Singapore</a>, World ID verifications are now available in Sevilla and Bilbao.&nbsp;



“In South America, access to World ID verifications in Chile has recently expanded to Concepcion, Curico and Viña del Mar (joining Santiago), and Argentina just set a new national record with over 10K verifications in a single day. Across the Pacific in Japan, the city of Fukuoka on Kyushu Island joins new locations in Tokyo available for proof of personhood verification via World ID,” a blog <a href="https://worldcoin.org/blog/announcements/singapore-launch-user-growth-expansions-landmark-year-worldcoin">post</a> announcing the expansion said.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/worldcoin-crypto-mainstream">Worldcoin is not what we meant by making crypto mainstream</a>



However, the company paused its services in India, France and Brazil, according to a <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2023/12/20/worldcoin-is-no-longer-offering-orb-verification-in-india-brazil-and-france/">report</a> from TechCrunch.



“World App continues to experience broad adoption in India where thousands download the app each week. Orb-verified proof of personhood services have been temporarily scaled back as the protocol works to develop and roll out a bespoke, safe and orderly process that sufficiently meets the demand for World ID in India,” the Worldcoin Foundation told Blockworks.



Sources close to <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/worldcoin">Worldcoin</a> told Blockworks that the project hopes to relaunch in India in 2024.



Earlier in December, the company <a href="https://worldcoin.org/blog/announcements/introducing-world-id-2.0">announced</a> World ID 2.0, expanding on its “proof of personhood.”



The upgrade will bring “Apps, Levels, and a series of core improvements” to the protocol launched earlier this year.



The apps, according to a post announcing the upgrade earlier this month, work on certain services that allow for World ID integration, including Reddit, Discord, Shopify, among others.



The <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/worldcoin-kenya-regulators">project has faced criticism since its launch</a>, with reports in August claiming that German regulators have been eyeing the project since 2022. French officials questioned the legality of collecting biometric data following its launch. 



Back in July, Blockworks opinion editor Molly Jane Zuckerman documented her experience of <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/worldcoin-eyeballs-scan-brooklyn">getting her iris biometrics scanned.</a>



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Worldcoin launches Orb locations in Singapore

Molly Jane Zuckerman

Over the past year, the crypto industry has seen its fair share of turmoil — from contentious crypto legislation to eyeball scanning coins to the conviction of one of crypto’s biggest fraudsters. You can bet that there are a lot of people who have had a lot of opinions about each and every blockbuster event (and some of the smaller ones, too).&nbsp;



With 2023 (almost) in the rear-view mirror, Blockworks’ opinion page has highlighted some of the best — that is, the most contentious, impassioned, absurd, etc. — takes on what went down in crypto in 2023.&nbsp;



Here’s our top-ten list:



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">10. <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/elizabeth-warren-crypto-web3">Elizabeth Warren has a lot to say about crypto — try listening for once</a></h2>



Earlier this year, Senator Elizabeth Warren criticized crypto (again) and declared that she was building an “anti-crypto army.”&nbsp;



This think piece by one of her constituents, herself a mom, asks Warren to reconsider her treatment of an industry that has been a safe haven for those excluded from other parts of the workforce.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">9. <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/congress-sam-bankman-frieds-love-is-blind">Swipe right? SBF’s ‘Love is Blind’ approach to politics was never real</a></h2>



In all of the Sam Bankman-Fried coverage, no one thought to compare the former FTX CEO’s antics to that of fame-hungry contestants on a reality show. But it seems like a reality show comparison of Bankman-Fried and the regulators, businessmen and politicians who fell in love with him is actually pretty apt.&nbsp;



As the author writes, “Just because Congress fell in love with the wrong guy doesn’t mean they should give up on the prospect of legislating crypto towards a happier ending.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">8. <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/digital-art-sothebys-goose-nft">You aren’t thinking hard enough about digital art</a></h2>



A digital, abstract rendering of a goose sold as an NFT for over $6 million at Sotheby’s this year. If you think that’s absurd, think about what one critic said of Claude Monet’s early work: “A preliminary drawing for a wallpaper pattern is more finished than this seascape.”&nbsp;



This op-ed asks the question —&nbsp;is it possible that we’re more like this critic than we realize?



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">7. <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/sec-ripple-gary-gensler">No matter what happens with the SEC, Ripple has already won</a></h2>



With all the big crypto court cases this year, you may not remember one of the earliest —&nbsp;the SEC vs Ripple.&nbsp;



This op-ed explores how Ripple —&nbsp;arguably one of the crypto companies that the industry saw as the butt of the joke — has now become a heroic David defeating Goliath figure instead. The enemy of your enemy is indeed your friend.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">6. <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/finance-teens-investing-education">Firearms before finance: The US educational system is failing teens like me</a></h2>



With our youngest op-ed writer of the year, this piece explores what it’s like to be a student in the American highschool system and learning how to shoot a gun —&nbsp;at the expense of learning anything about how to prepare for their financial futures.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">5. <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-subculture-x-reliance">If we want crypto to succeed, we’ve got to give X the boot</a></h2>



This year has seen our beloved Crypto Twitter turn into Crypto X.&nbsp;



And while some are on board with the switch, this op-ed takes the stance that crypto as a subculture needs to end its toxic reliance on X —&nbsp;if it’s ever going to move past the destruction left by Sam Bankman-Fried.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">4. <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/unbanked-crypto-trust-banking">Raise your hand if you fully trust your bank</a></h2>



The beginning of this year saw the collapse of several smaller American banks, something previously almost unheard of.&nbsp;



When banks have all the power over access to your finances, isn’t it natural to look for an alternative in crypto?



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">3. <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/drainage-dao-crypto-china">DrainageDAO? What crypto can learn from a 4,000-year-old flood control system</a></h2>



This piece asks the question that you have all probably been thinking about: If Chinese townspeople 4,000 years ago could band together to create a sophisticated drainage system to save their lives from yearly floods, can’t we all get along on Discord?



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">2. <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-financial-journalism-issues">I’m a crypto journalist, just please don’t tell anyone</a></h2>



For those of us who work in crypto, telling other people what you do can be difficult for a variety of reasons.&nbsp;



This op-ed touches on why it can sometimes feel so bad to be honest about your job, or even why you believe in the industry at all —&nbsp;and tells you that it’s ok.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">1. <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/worldcoin-privacy-concerns">Worldcoin isn’t as bad as it sounds: It’s worse</a></h2>



The eyeball scanning craze of Worldcoin has died down somewhat, but the privacy concerns linger.&nbsp;



This piece breaks down why exactly it may be so wrong to give a company access to our biometric data.



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What’s on your mind? A year of crypto opinions

Shalini Nagarajan

Crypto-based digital identity provider Worldcoin will transition operator rewards from USDC stablecoins to its <a href="https://blockworks.co/price/wld">WLD</a> tokens starting next month.



Worldcoin had used USDC-based rewards as a temporary measure following its launch, a phase that&#8217;s now concluding.&nbsp;



Issuing operator rewards in WLD will add to the increasing circulation of its native token.



The WLD token debuted with a modest circulating supply of slightly over 100 million WLD, the team said in a <a href="https://worldcoin.org/blog/announcements/update-circulating-supply-evolution-renewal-market-maker-loan-agreements">blog</a> on Sunday. Its max supply is 100 times higher at 10 billion.



“This was due to the goal of creating a network of as many human beings as possible. To achieve this, the majority of the WLD token supply will be given to new and existing users in the form of user grants over the years to come,” it added.



Blockworks has reached out to Worldcoin about the criteria used for compensating orb operators.



Since its launch on July 24, the WLD token&#8217;s circulating supply has increased from roughly 100 million to over 134 million, representing 1.34% of the total.&nbsp;



This rise is due to over 800,000 Orb-verified users claiming about 34 million WLD in free grants.



As of Oct. 22, the circulating supply of WLD includes 100 million tokens used for loans to market makers, around 34.3 million tokens given out as user grants and a little portion earned as operator rewards, the team said.



WLD’s circulating supply is expected to decrease on Oct. 24 because the market makers are due to return up to 25 million WLD from their initial 100 million WLD loan, as their agreement terms change.



They can choose to buy some tokens, but any amount not purchased will be deducted from the current supply, leading to a reduction.



The tokens are <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/worldcoin-not-in-us">not available for use, purchase or access in the US</a>.



Worldcoin was founded by tech entrepreneur Sam Altman, with the goal of creating a universal basic income system.&nbsp;



The project uses a device called the &#8220;Orb&#8221; to scan individuals&#8217; irises, with the aim that each free crypto grant goes to a unique person.&nbsp;



These scans are conducted by operators who manage the Orbs, helping distribute Worldcoin globally by verifying human identity, an essential step in establishing a unique digital wallet for everyone, while curbing fraud.



The idea is to provide a form of financial equality and broad access to digital assets. However, the method — gathering biometric data — had sparks privacy concerns.&nbsp;



Despite Worldcoin&#8217;s reassurances that it does not store any personal data after verification, critics worry about potential data breaches or misuse of sensitive iris information.



The project is currently <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/worldcoin-kenya-regulators">facing global scrutiny</a>, with regulators worldwide being apprehensive regarding the company&#8217;s handling of personal and biometric data.



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Worldcoin rotates reward token scheme

Eitan Katz

You can’t knock Sam Altman for trying.



Worldcoin, the latest brainchild from OpenAI’s CEO, presents itself as an ambitious reach for crypto adoption. The project’s <a href="https://worldcoin.org/">mission</a> to create a “more human economic system” in the face of AI progress through crypto sounds great in theory — until you get around to how it wants to achieve that goal.&nbsp;



Worldcoin’s dystopian vision of retina-scanning, total economic centralization and technocratic solutions to the real threat of AI job replacement has rightfully set off a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/jul/28/crypto-firm-wants-to-scan-your-eyeballs-worldcoin-privacy-ai">tidal wave</a> of <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/59b09c99-2c46-4d23-b861-5d520a85162c">criticism</a> and regulatory <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2023/07/28/world-gdpr-concerns/">scrutiny</a> around its invasive privacy and security implications.



On top of simply being creepy, Worldcoin’s rollout completely subverts crypto’s ideological foundation of being private, decentralized and secure. It asks users to give away control to a “trusted” agent outside the scope of a government while jettisoning individual, peer-to-peer ownership — essentially stepping toward <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/digital-authoritarianism-how-technology-designed-to-empower-us-was-seized-by-autocrats-1.5797135">digital authoritarianism</a>. Worldcoin’s potential scale, however, does track with crypto’s original vision of being an alternative to the traditional financial ecosystem, born out of the 2008 banking crisis.



But substituting grandiosity for functionality isn’t the most effective way to win over new audiences — particularly when <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/worldcoin-eyeballs-scan-brooklyn">biometrics are involved</a>. Sam Altman isn’t wrong about wanting to make crypto ubiquitous, but builders on the frontline of blockchain development shouldn’t be following in Worldcoin’s footsteps to reach that precipice.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Do we need to dumb down crypto?</h2>



Any crypto veteran will tell you that rebuilding the financial ecosystem from the ground up is no magic trick. It’s taken tireless work to inch crypto toward mass adoption while balancing its core philosophy and functionality as an actual currency.&nbsp;



But in a culture and society that increasingly <a href="https://www.mintel.com/consumer-market-news/the-evolving-concept-of-convenience/">values convenience</a> and accessibility, it’s a hard ask to get a significant amount of the global population on board with an entirely new and complex monetary system.



It’s not that traditional finance is the most understandable and accessible sector, yet nearly everyone on the planet interacts with it in one form or another. You don’t have to be a financial or technical whiz to check your bank account balance or transfer money to a friend.



Crypto, on the other hand, demands an intensive information prelude before diving in, even for people with a financial background. In a sense, this unnecessary complexity also fuels the ongoing disconnect between the wider industry and regulators trying to craft fair crypto rules. For the most part, regulators are smart people, so you can’t make the argument that they just don’t understand it.



Crypto projects aiming for mass adoption need to pivot from the <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/crypto-comprehension-study-98-people-190349019.html?guccounter=1&amp;guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&amp;guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAL4DnurkdWnKOPTShRlVY8VDJGbe6S3jwDoUGYScRxH0PTi8c7sSfq_YHh0lBRatRIII6RJyB_sUqL6v1uvc2h1bWAXoK_3L-1qf5Ae9paBaNM4lwAcluNZ4Jjf26y7Hm98pMLNo-70LuZ1mBckXT5ZnJ8P7q8uYuzi9VZdElxsB">fruitless task</a> of re-educating the general public on an elaborate financial and technical ecosystem. But that doesn’t mean dumbing down its more technically complex components or enticing people to hand over a picture of their eyeballs for free crypto. You just need to be more inventive.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Making crypto ubiquitous</h2>



Crypto doesn’t act as universal as it perceives itself to be. And to match its ambition with usefulness, projects have to rewire their compass when it comes to technical growth and development. The three ingredients here are real utility, retaining crypto’s ideological roots and a trajectory toward seamlessness.



When crypto products are as easy to access and interact with as, let’s say, Apple Pay, PayPal or even Robinhood, that will be a true indicator that the industry has reached ubiquity. Reaching that point means creating products and tools that don’t take years and a hyperactive Telegram account to fully grasp.



Part of that challenge comes from recalibrating product roadmaps and being honest about what blockchain technology can functionally achieve. Instead of shifting the world’s axis to accommodate crypto, its real-world utility lies in fixing the aspects of finance that nobody wants to deal with. The blockchain is at its most functional when it’s optimizing tedious tasks and eliminating hassle — not used by new forms of intermediaries.



Read more from our opinion section: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/worldcoin-privacy-concerns">Worldcoin isn’t as bad as it sounds: It’s worse</a>



To be clear: Crypto needs to co-exist with the current financial reality and how people have interacted with money for centuries to thrive authentically. But enabling new financial flexibility while maintaining peer-to-peer directness and decentralization will launch crypto’s development outside of the box that most projects place it into.



Blockchain builders and leaders don’t lack imagination when it comes to brand narrative, but they should lend that inventiveness to making the actual product great and accessible first. As nice as a brand story is, it will only get you so far without the technical infrastructure to back it up.



The crypto community’s echo chamber would also benefit from internalizing an authentic outsider’s perspective, much like the traditional financial industry.



Leaders must understand that not everyone that uses crypto is going to be a zealous HODLer. It’s not as though the average person that uses a bank is fascinated by finance. Rather, they treat it as a utility and a tool for safekeeping their money — maybe investing it in the stock market every once in a while. Crypto should strive to function in the same way.



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<div class="wp-block-post-author-biography">Eitan Katz is the CEO and Co-Founder of Kima. Prior to Kima, Eitan served as a seasoned executive with a distinguished background and leadership roles at the IDF (Intelligence/8200), HP, HPE, and BMC. His list of accomplishments includes building HP’s Global Innovation and Incubation program, leading HPE’s Enterprise Mobile platform, and being a 3X founder, as well as a founding member of Aegis, the first MPC-based bitcoin wallet. Eitan’s training in the Elite Israeli Intelligence Forces along with his experience, has instilled in him a unique perspective on deep technology, leadership, strategy, and execution.</div>


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Worldcoin is not what we meant by making crypto mainstream

Casey Wagner

Worldcoin — touted by its founders as a cutting-edge, “privacy-preserving” technology — faces scrutiny across the globe as regulators raise concerns about the company’s personal information and biometric data practices.



OpenAI CEO Sam Altman co-founded Worldcoin, a cryptocurrency project complete with a token and “World ID,” which is designed to act as a digital passport. The project’s stated mission is to distinguish humans from AI and eventually create an AI-funded universal basic income, as Altman and co-founder Alex Blania have explained in an open letter. 



Regulatory roadblocks remain, however. In the United States, for example, citizens and residents aren’t allowed to purchase or trade the Worldcoin (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/wld">WLD</a>) tokens. 



In Europe, German data regulators have eyed the project since November 2022, according to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/german-data-watchdog-probing-worldcoin-crypto-project-official-says-2023-07-31/">reports</a>. In France, days after Worldcoin launched, officials said the legality of collecting biometric data “seemed questionable.”&nbsp;



Police raided <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/worldcoin">Worldcoin</a>’s warehouse in Nairobi, Kenya, earlier this month, according to <a href="https://kahawatungu.com/police-raid-worldcoin-cryptocurrency-warehouse-in-nairobi-over-data/">local reports</a>. The alleged raid came days after Blania announced via <a href="https://twitter.com/alexblania/status/1686846072901996544?s=20">X,</a> formerly known as Twitter, that the company had paused World ID verifications in the country. 



“World ID is built for privacy,” Blania added. “We look forward to resuming operations, while continuing global rollout.”



Worldcoin has been in contact with the Office of Data Protection in Kenya since April 2022, according to people familiar with the matter. In a letter sent to the office last week, Worldcoin clarified that the company will “never sell users’ personal or biometric data,” per a copy of the letter viewed by Blockworks.&nbsp;



“Operator Partners do not access or process people’s personal or biometric data when conducting Orb signups,” the letter added. “They are akin to marketing agents.”&nbsp;



People around the world can complete “Orb scans” of their irises to prove their human identity. Individuals who receive an scan of their irises must consent to biometric data collection. The <a href="https://vault.pactsafe.io/s/8a18d792-fd76-44db-9b92-b0bb7981c248/legal.html#contract-syn0uxpen">consent form</a> has three options: disagree (no scan will be completed), agree to Orb scan but opt out of data custody (image data is not transferred or stored) and agree to Orb scan and data custody.&nbsp;



Individuals who agreed to the third option consent to having their data stored and sent to “teams in the European Union and the United States.”



“The project will continue to cooperate with governing bodies on requests for more information about its privacy and data protection practices,” the Worldcoin Foundation told Blockworks. “We are committed to working with our partners globally to ensure that the Worldcoin project meets regulatory requirements and provides a safe, secure, and transparent service for verified humans.”&nbsp;



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Worldcoin to continue working with regulators after international controversy

Kenya has suspended <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/worldcoin" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Worldcoin</a> operations in the country due to concerns about public safety and the integrity of financial transactions.



The country’s Interior Cabinet Secretary, Kithure Kindiki, announced on Wednesday that all related activities would be suspended until relevant public agencies confirm there are no risks to the general public.



“It will be critical that assurances of public safety and the integrity of the financial transactions involving such a large number of citizens be satisfactorily provided upfront,” the politician said in a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=598481229140719&amp;set=a.598481322474043" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">statement</a> posted to Facebook.



Any individual or legal entity found involved in, supporting, aiding or abetting Worldcoin activity will face appropriate actions as deemed necessary, he added.



The Worldcoin Foundation told Blockworks that demand for its &#8220;proof of personhood&#8221; verification services in Kenya resulted in tens of thousands of individuals queuing for three days to obtain a World ID.



“Out of an abundance of caution and in an effort to mitigate crowd volume, verification services have been temporarily paused,” a spokesperson said.



&#8220;During the pause, the team will develop an onboarding program that encompasses more robust crowd control measures and work with local officials to increase understanding of the privacy measures and commitments Worldcoin implements, not only in Kenya, but everywhere,&#8221; they said.



Worldcoin, unveiled on July 24, requires users to provide iris scans to obtain a digital ID, also called “World ID.”



In some countries, users are offered a cryptocurrency reward as part of the initiative to establish “universal access to the global economy.”



The central feature of the project’s World ID is the use of a biometric marker, an iris scan, to distinguish humans from artificial intelligence (AI) bots. Individuals who register for this service in jurisdictions that allow it receive Worldcoin&#8217;s cryptocurrency token, WLD.



The primary objective of this digital identification system is to link your &#8220;World ID&#8221; to websites and applications, replacing conventional logins. This process verifies your real identity without the need to disclose personal information such as names and emails.



In the realm of AI development, a digital ID such as this could be crucial to differentiate humans from AI bots on the internet, according to Worldcoin.&nbsp;



The project’s mission appears to be to protect individuals from AI misinformation and establish clarity in identifying trustworthy sources online.



Read More: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/worldcoin-not-in-us">Worldcoin is here — just not here in the US</a>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">UK, Germany and France probe Worldcoin over data handling</h2>



The Kenyan government&#8217;s decision follows investigations by other government agencies into the project.&nbsp;



Arthur Cheong, founder of crypto investment firm DeFiance Capital, <a href="https://twitter.com/Arthur_0x/status/1686660120011530241" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a> that more countries are likely to follow suit soon. According to him, gathering sensitive eyeball biometric data by a single private company, not under the respective government&#8217;s jurisdiction, is deemed too critical and sensitive.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">Expect more countries to take similar action soon as eyeballs bio-metrics data is too important and sensitive to be gathered by one single private company not under the their respective government&#39;s jurisdiction. <a href="https://t.co/Z6Ce14L5IN">https://t.co/Z6Ce14L5IN</a>&mdash; Arthur (@Arthur_0x) <a href="https://twitter.com/Arthur_0x/status/1686660120011530241?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 2, 2023</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



The UK&#8217;s Information Commissioner&#8217;s Office (ICO) revealed last week that it will be conducting inquiries regarding the project.



In a statement to Blockworks, the ICO clarified its action, emphasizing that organizations must have a valid and legal basis for processing personal data. A spokesperson highlighted that if they rely on consent, it must be given freely and withdrawable without any adverse effects.



Since Nov. 2022, a German data authority has been conducting an independent investigation into the project due to concerns about the extensive handling of sensitive biometric data.&nbsp;



Furthermore, France&#8217;s privacy watchdog has also initiated its own investigation into the matter.



Updated Aug. 2, 2023 at 1:04 pm ET: Added comment from Worldcoin spokesperson.



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Worldcoin faces setback in Kenya as operations halted

Andrew M. Bailey

Nick Almond

Worldcoin — a new financial system connected to sensitive biometric information,<a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/04/06/1048981/worldcoin-cryptocurrency-biometrics-web3/"> mostly harvested from poor people</a> — sure sounds like a terrible idea.



“Terrible” doesn’t do it justice.



Worldcoin will need to assemble a vast database of iris data. But not everyone is eager to gaze into an Orb. In the bootstrapping phase, at least, you had to pay people to scan their eyes. And so Worldcoin turned to the global south — home to the cheapest eyeballs — and played a dark game of ‘what will people do for money?’



Incredibly, <a href="https://www.theblock.co/post/237647/inside-sam-altmans-worldcoin-and-its-quest-to-catalog-all-humans">Worldcoin was unprepared</a> for an obvious consequence of this rollout strategy: A black market for verified credentials. You can now seemingly <a href="https://twitter.com/BlockBeatsAsia/status/1659060950748782594?s=20">buy a World ID</a> for as little as $30. Anyone, then, with more than $30 on hand can command more than one digital identity (although Worldcoin is <a href="https://gizmodo.com/worldcoin-black-market-iris-data-identity-orb-1850454037">aware of this issue</a> and has proposed solutions to resolve it). Connecting real people to digital identities is a thorny puzzle.&nbsp;



Worldcoin does not fix this. And it’s unlikely it ever can, since nothing in the design can stop professional sybil attackers farming eyeballs on the ground level through nefarious means.



This does not inspire trust in the system or its designers. And yet trust is what they demand. Worldcoin’s promotional materials are <a href="https://worldcoin.org/faqs#data-privacy-&amp;-security">full of promises</a> — to delete sensitive biometric information, or keep it hidden from view, or not use it in nefarious ways. One blog post (quoted <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/04/06/1048981/worldcoin-cryptocurrency-biometrics-web3/">here</a>; the original appears to have been changed since initial release) put it this way: “During our field-testing phase, we are collecting and securely storing more data than we will upon its completion… We will delete all the biometric data we have collected during field testing once our algorithms are fully-trained.”



“Trust us,” in other words. “We’ll totally delete the eyeball database.”



But when it comes to sensitive information, promises aren’t enough. And the very people who insist that you trust them are the ones who should command the most suspicion. The fact that Worldcoin’s co-founder Sam Altman also heads up OpenAI — a firm currently <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jul/05/authors-file-a-lawsuit-against-openai-for-unlawfully-ingesting-their-books">being sued</a> over allegations of dubious uses of large data sets — asks more questions than it answers.



Sometimes Worldcoin’s privacy promises are conjoined with dazzling technical details. Zero-knowledge proofs, we’re told, will save the day, and allow users to prove humanity without connecting any particular financial activity to a World ID or other associated transactions.



There’s a grain of truth here. Zero-knowledge proofs can generate impressive privacy guarantees. But in the case of Worldcoin marketing, they’re more theater than substance. Taking off your shoes at the airport makes it look like important precautions are being taken (but doesn’t actually make you any safer); and <a href="https://worldcoin.org/blog/developers/privacy-deep-dive">long blog posts about zero-knowledge proofs</a> distract from, but don’t in fact address, the problem of Worldcoin asking for users’ trust.



Linking immutable biometric traits to money could have dystopian consequences.



Imagine that your digital identity has been lost in some way — shut down by authorities for non-compliance, or otherwise blocked. With traditional cash — and other cryptocurrencies — you can always make a new wallet and stash some fresh coins in it. But this isn’t Minority Report, and you can’t get a new iris from your neighborhood surgeon.&nbsp;



When your immutable digital identity is locked — imagine merchants who won’t take your coins from you without a digital signature announcing your World ID — it’s over for you. No old account. No new account. No soup for you. You just lost your digital personhood.



Boosters might reply that, thanks to zero-knowledge proofs, one could prove that a given transaction is associated with a valid World ID without disclosing which World ID that is — thus reducing the risk of total identity blockade. But this reply misses the point.&nbsp;



Zero-knowledge proofs could be used in benign ways or to preserve user privacy. Or authorities could demand more; they could demand that users reveal all, or be locked out altogether. Setting up a system and simply hoping its full powers of surveillance and control won’t be used is naive, at best.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Dystopian premise… dystopian premine?</h2>



Worldcoin is billed as a network “<a href="https://worldcoin.org/cofounder-letter">owned by everyone</a>.” Early promotional materials claim giving “<a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/worldcoin#toggle-gdpr">every person on the planet an equal share of a new cryptocurrency</a>” as a premise of the project. It sounds laudable. But a glance at the actual plan for distributing tokens casts doubt on whether equal distribution is an aim of the project at all, much less one it will achieve.



It’s a curious ‘world’ coin that <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/worldcoin-not-in-us" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">isn’t even available</a> in the <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-16/worldcoin-the-eyeball-scanning-crypto-unicorn-hits-signup-snags">United States, Turkey, Sudan, or China</a>. And if equal distribution is a goal, allocating a significant chunk <a href="https://whitepaper.worldcoin.org/tokenomics">of all the tokens that will ever exist to insiders</a> is another curious choice. Early documentation put that insider number at twenty percent; it’s now slated to be at least twenty-five.&nbsp;



Who are these insiders? It’s some combination of Worldcoin developers and their partners, Orb operators (with signup bonuses that exhibit a <a href="https://twitter.com/zachxbt/status/1452065666824028160">pyramid-like structure</a>), and a <a href="https://venturebeat.com/consumer/worldcoin-launches-a-global-cryptocurrency-that-will-be-given-to-every-person-on-earth/">slate of (in)famous investors</a> including Sam Bankman-Fried and Three Arrows Capital. Such self-dealing is not the plan one would expect, to put the point mildly, from an operation with genuine egalitarian ambitions.



Read more from our opinion section: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/worldcoin-eyeballs-scan-brooklyn" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Worldcoin hackable by cutting off someone’s face, draping it over your own</a>



Now that Worldcoin has launched, we know a bit more about how token distribution will work. It is not entirely reassuring.



There’s a well-known crypto trick; they call it a “Sam Coin” (yes, after <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/sam-bankman-fried" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">that Sam</a>). The idea is to release into circulation a very small percentage of all the tokens that will ever exist. Despite low liquidity and trading volume, some eye-popping fully diluted market cap numbers can result, which make for great marketing and creative accounting.



Worldcoin — much like MAPS, a <a href="https://twitter.com/DrNickA/status/1588132362847748096">notorious crypto dud</a> — <a href="https://twitter.com/DrNickA/status/1683404751164022786">is a Sam Coin</a>.



About one percent of the ten billion Worldcoin tokens that will ever exist are in circulation, <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/business/2023/07/24/worldcoin-release-tokenomics-report-geofenced-for-some-countries/">mostly in the hands of market makers partnered with Worldcoin</a>.&nbsp;



And yet Worldcoin’s fully diluted market cap, at the time of writing, is somewhere around twenty billion dollars. It’s a great setup to attract speculative retail investors. And those market maker insiders, furthermore, have a deal that guarantees them <a href="https://twitter.com/MomoOnChain/status/1683395484738527233">access to tokens at a fixed price</a>. Their profits are secure. The result is a market structure <a href="https://twitter.com/AriDavidPaul/status/1683627646633013249">primed for manipulation and pump and dump dynamics</a> — familiar to anyone who’s paid much attention to crypto.



Worldcoin is no radical new financial system, and certainly not one aimed at equality or fairness.&nbsp;



It’s just more of the same, but with extra data harvesting steps.



Do not look into the Orb.



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Nick Almond (@DrNickA) is Founder and Architect of FactoryDAO, a next generation modular DAO creation protocol.







Andrew M. Bailey is Associate Professor at Yale-NUS College in Singapore and a Fellow at the Bitcoin Policy Institute.

Worldcoin isn’t as bad as it sounds: It’s worse

Andrew Thurman

Worldcoin’s long-anticipated WLD token has soared in its first 24 hours of trading, largely on the back of market making activity that some claim rises to the level of fraud.&nbsp;



Since its launch on Monday, WLD has climbed as high as $3.30 per token before retreating to $1.91, only to climb back to $2.22 at press time. Multiple observers, however, have claimed that the price action is attributable to market manipulation more so than organic activity.&nbsp;



Prior to the token launch, online commentators often criticized the project for its potential lapses in protecting user biometric data, and characterized its overall ambitions and goals as “dystopian.” Supporters, meanwhile, pointed to the need for a proof-of-humanity tool to help reduce ever-pervasive sybil attacks, among other use cases.&nbsp;



Since the WLD token launch, the scrutiny has only redoubled. During the course of a Twitter debate with market maker and investor Wintermute CEO Evgeny Gaevoy, investment firm Blocktower founder Ari Paul accused WLD market makers of “wash trading” and “paid market manipulation.”&nbsp;



He <a href="https://twitter.com/AriDavidPaul/status/1683543621218254867">wrote</a>: “I *am* accusing worldcoin of fraud along multiple axes, and I *am* claiming that at least [market makers] here are painting the tape in ways that are illegal if they’re US regulated.”&nbsp;



At the core of the complaints from Paul and others is the initial token distribution for WLD. Worldcoin was unusually <a href="https://whitepaper.worldcoin.org/tokenomics">transparent</a> in publishing the details of their deals with market makers, revealing plans to distribute 100 million tokens to the firms relative to just 43 million to retail users at launch. The total supply of WLD is projected to be 10 billion.&nbsp;



Analysis from Matt Batsinelas of <a href="https://glassmarkets.io/">Glass Markets</a>, an analytics platform built to monitor exchange liquidity, shows multiple market maker <a href="https://etherscan.io/address/0x55697d6ef379C6324e41f350A3db4ee19BAb82A0">wallets</a> with 20 million or more tokens in the opening hours of trading, among others with lesser amounts. The terms of the loans to the market makers, including a three-month duration and options with high strike prices, would ultimately incentivize the trading firms to seek a high initial price.&nbsp;



In Batsinelas’ view, the market makers “didn’t do anything wrong,” but simply accepted good deals from Worldcoin, which is ultimately responsible for the initial tokenomics and distribution.&nbsp;



Some observers have harkened back to Alameda-era Solana tokens — often referred to as “Samcoins,” a reference to FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried — which also featured low “float,” or low initial circulation, high fully diluted valuation (FDV) tokens. 



For instance, despite being potentially compromised in a $400 million hack during the collapse of FTX, the token for the now largely defunct Solana-based and Alameda-incubated DEX, Serum, still has a FDV of just under $1 billion. This is down from as much as $100 billion at its peak.



“This is essentially what Alameda was doing to make a ton of PnL off of these projects,” he added.&nbsp;



While not as extreme, WLD’s scant initial circulating supply remains tremendously top-heavy, and initial trading has led to a $23.5 billion FDV — good enough for a spot on the top-10 cryptocurrencies by market cap if all tokens were unlocked, all created essentially overnight.&nbsp;&nbsp;



This valuation is comparable to OpenAI at $27 billion, perhaps the most hyped tech company in recent memory, and Coinbase at $23.5 billion, arguably the second most systemically important company in the crypto industry.&nbsp;



The current WLD supply is overwhelmingly held by market making firms rather than retail traders, and the bifurcation between large and small holders is especially pronounced across chains. 



A Dune <a href="https://dune.com/worldcoin/worldcoin">dashboard</a> from the Worldcoin team boasts 878,000 wallets on the Optimism layer-2 network. However, the total token supply on Optimism is just 177 million tokens compared to Ethereum’s 10 billion, and a Uniswap v3 DEX pool on Ethereum laps an Optimism pool in volume by a factor of more than 10 at $6.2 million versus $572,000. 



The Worldcoin team did not respond to a request for comment by press time.&nbsp;



Additionally, signs indicate that token investors with vesting schedules may already be attempting to offload their positions. Blockworks found an over-the-counter desk offering 5 million tokens priced at $1 each locked for 12 months, then vesting linearly over a 24-month period.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



While Worldcoin’s landing page claims they have 2 million users, at press time only 8 million of the 44 million in tokens available to retail users have been claimed.



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Worldcoin soars despite accusations of fraud

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="256" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Off-Topic-with-Molly-Jane_20230616a-1.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-60166" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Off-Topic-with-Molly-Jane_20230616a-1.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Off-Topic-with-Molly-Jane_20230616a-1.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Off-Topic-with-Molly-Jane_20230616a-1.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Off-Topic-with-Molly-Jane_20230616a-1.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Off-Topic-with-Molly-Jane_20230616a-1.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Off-Topic-with-Molly-Jane_20230616a-1.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Off-Topic-with-Molly-Jane_20230616a-1.png?w=80 80w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



This week on my to-do list, nestled between “buy milk, see the dentist, do laundry,” was “get eyeballs scanned by Worldcoin.”



I have to be honest: I had no particular desire to get my eyeballs scanned before this week. And even now, I can’t say Worldcoin’s launch and promise of a new way of proving your humanness made me want to go out and shove my eyeballs against one of their shiny metal orbs.&nbsp;



But my ambivalence about this very contentious new project — Sam Altman will steal your identity forever! You’ll never have privacy again! —&nbsp;made me the perfect guinea pig to document a day in the life of an aspiring Worldcoin digital identity holder.



Let’s rewind back to Monday morning, when I decided my eyeballs needed to be scanned as soon as possible. Even though I live in New York, a city which seemed like it would have the right kind of people who must be scanned with the same urgency as myself, only one of the four Worldcoin Orb locations was full up for the day: I got my first choice of Brooklyn, at the time of my choice.



Before I hopped on the L train, I decided to scare the bejeezus out of all of my non-crypto-native friends and family members by asking them their thoughts on my upcoming Worldcoin activities.&nbsp;



Keep in mind that because most of these people have either a rudimentary, or zero-level, understanding of Bitcoin (and Bitcoin alone), I tried to phrase my task therefore as succinctly as possible:



I’m going to get my iris biometrics scanned today by a new global cryptocurrency project called Worldcoin which involves visiting an Orb in Brooklyn so I can prove I am a real person in the future. Any thoughts?



Only one person out of my family had a positive reaction (my mom). But look a bit closer, and even its positivity was actually negative: So many of my fave futuristic dystopian movies have come true, we might all need this very soon.&nbsp;



You don’t want a project designed to change the world for the better to be something out of a dystopia, do you —&nbsp;ideally, we’re aiming for a utopia, right?



One of my more crypto-friendly friends snarked: Great way to have your identity stolen at some point in the future.



Undeterred, I downloaded the app on my way to the train. You need almost no information to sign up —&nbsp;to the extent that you are given a chance to give an alternative name and email address. Privacy fears, disperse!&nbsp;



After arrival, I was then led by a friendly receptionist through the most hipster, open-space coworking venue I have ever seen in my life (think Brooklynites with mullets and small mustaches) to a small table with two silver Orbs.



If you don’t have a million stupid questions for the human manning the Orb scanner, you can scan your irises and be done in five minutes. But if you’re me, trying to make up your mind about Orbs, you can easily spend 45 minutes grilling the Orb volunteers.



One scanner was a true Orb believer who spent his free time scanning eyeballs, when he wasn’t working full-time at his crypto research job. “Don’t worry,” he assured me, “I took an exhaustive online training course for this.”



“This” turned out to be holding up a QR code to a shiny metal ball, and dodging my questions about the Worldcoin airdrop to US citizens.&nbsp;



The other Orb scanner, who had worked for over three years as one of the engineers actually building the Orb, was brought in to deal with me about 10 questions in.



For example —&nbsp;could Sam Altman ever go bankrupt and secretly sell all of our iris scans to the Chinese government to stay afloat?



Actually yes, this could happen.&nbsp;



But both Orb scanners reassured me that Sam has absolutely no plans to do this, as far as they know. Plus, because your irises aren’t actually stored after scanning, all the data he would have to sell are public keys associated with anonymous Worldcoin accounts, which may not be that valuable to China (yet).



Before these Orb scanners got sick of me, I got to the really meaty questions I had prepared.&nbsp;



Did they realize that Worldcoin had an accessibility problem? Namely, did they understand that their entire project only caters to humans with eyes? And according to a very cursory Google, a 2007 study found that about 30 people in 100,000 are born without one or both eyes, thus cruelly denying them access to Worldcoin benefits.



The Orb engineer assured me that this is a problem they are seriously considering for future iterations of the project.



I continued on a darker vein: What if a criminal mastermind decided to cut out someone’s eyes, and use them to steal their identity?



The Orb engineer told me that it wouldn’t work. This Orb needs to see alive, blinking eyes, and a human face that is real attached to them. A picture of someone’s eyes won’t scan, robot eyes won’t scan, canine eyes won’t scan.



But then&nbsp;I got him.



If you cut off someone’s face, including gouging out their eyes, and then you draped it all over your own face, could you register as them with a Worldcoin scanner and steal their identity?



Yes.&nbsp;



Although he promised that the Worldcoin R&amp;D team has not tested this particular edge case.



Finally, I actually scanned my eyeballs, and my story ends there. I now have an app on my phone with a virtual card that I can sort of flip around with my fingers. And nothing else.



As an American, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/worldcoin-not-in-us" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">I won’t get the token airdrop</a>. Hypothetically, I can use the app as a crypto wallet for ERC-20 tokens, but that functionality hasn’t appeared yet. All I can do is wait for either the US to change its securities laws or Worldcoin ID log-in to be accepted in more places than just Okta for my eyeball-scanning day to really bear the fruits of its labor.



Am I now scared that my privacy is forever compromised? I’m not. Really.&nbsp;



I already use FaceID on my iPhone. I pay for Clear to scan my face at airports and save me time in the security lines. I once even got an entire body scan to create a little action figure of myself, thumbs up, for Father’s Day. And who knows what that privacy clause looks like, there could be thousands of little Molly Jane figurines for sale in China for all I know.



Do I feel like I’m part of a revolution changing the world with new ways of enabling democracy, as the Worldcoin website states? Also no.



What I do feel, however, is a little bit proud. My lack of interest in the technical side of crypto means that I’ve never really delved into the DeFi world of farming and staking, for example, which means that my firsthand crypto knowledge is confined to using the biggest, centralized crypto exchanges.



But today, I finally did something hands-on in crypto (and journalism). I physically got out from behind my screen, ventured into the bowels of Williamsburg, personally pestered two crypto enthusiasts for almost an hour and sacrificed my eyeballs to a metal Orb.



What did you do with your Monday?



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I don’t care much about tech, I don’t care a whole lot about finance, either. I care about writing stories and watching weird things unfold. And that’s why I’ve ended up in crypto. But because I’m missing that passion for what crypto and blockchain are all about — finance, tech, privacy, yadda yadda — I’m going to write instead about what I am actually interested in. Everything about crypto that has very little to do with crypto. That’s what this column will be about. All the tangential stories that come out of the blockchain and crypto space, what I think about them, and how I navigate it all as a skeptical former Russian literature major. It’s precisely my perch as an outsider that lets me do what I do: Opine on all sides of any crypto issue, no strings attached, no skin in the game. If you want to talk crypto with me, let’s go off topic.

Worldcoin hackable by cutting off someone’s face, draping it over your own

Worldcoin is here, but only for people outside of the United States.&nbsp;



OpenAI CEO Sam Altman co-founded Worldcoin, a cryptocurrency project complete with a token and “World ID,” designed to act as a digital passport. The project launched Monday.&nbsp;



Worldcoin’s <a href="https://vault.pactsafe.io/s/8a18d792-fd76-44db-9b92-b0bb7981c248/legal.html#contract-byutjvtyt">terms of service</a> makes the American blockade quite clear: “WLD tokens are not intended to be available for use, purchase, or access by US persons, including US citizens, residents, or persons in the United States, or companies incorporated, located, or resident in the United States, or who have a registered agent in the United States.”



Yet even though US citizens cant use, purchase or access the tokens, Worldcoin included Americans cities — Miami, San Francisco and New York City — in its “Orb tour,” which is intended to “educate and answer questions about the protocol and facilitate sign-ups for World ID using the Orb.”&nbsp;



Anyone who completes an Orb scan in the US will not be able to participate in the token drop, a Worldcoin representative at a New York City pop-up location told Blockworks Monday.&nbsp;



An <a href="https://worldcoin.org/">open letter</a> penned by Altman and co-founder Alex Blania suggested that the token was being made available in more legally permissible areas of the world.&nbsp;



“Worldcoin consists of a privacy-preserving digital identity (World ID) and, where laws allow, a digital currency (WLD) received simply for being human,” Altman and Blania wrote. “We hope that, where the rules are less clear, such as in the U.S., steps will be taken so more people can benefit from both.”&nbsp;



To be sure, Altman and company are betting on <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/gensler-ai-not-crypto">artificial intelligence continuing to improve</a>. It will get so much better, Altman believes, that eventually, it will become impossible to distinguish between AI and real humans. World ID is how someone can prove they’re human, with <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/proving-humanness-on-internet">Worldcoin</a> as the means of payment tied to that digital identity.&nbsp;



“If successful, we believe Worldcoin could drastically increase economic opportunity, scale a reliable solution for distinguishing humans from AI online while preserving privacy, enable global democratic processes, and eventually show a potential path to AI-funded [universal basic income],” the open letter states.



When asked on a recent Blockworks podcast episode why to not instead rely on government solutions such as know-your-customer (KYC) rules, Blania replied, “The short answer is you can rely on some governments, or you probably could. The question is then still if you should.”&nbsp;



“Using government KYC will work for some countries. It will not work for the majority of the world because most countries just don’t have a great identity system,” Blania added.&nbsp;



To create a World ID, users must complete an iris scan, an in-person data collection using the Worldcoin “Orb,” a silver ball with cameras and sensors to capture the biometric information.&nbsp;



Individuals who receive an scan of their irises must consent to biometric data collection. The <a href="https://vault.pactsafe.io/s/8a18d792-fd76-44db-9b92-b0bb7981c248/legal.html#contract-syn0uxpen">consent form</a> has three options: disagree (no scan will be completed), agree to Orb scan but opt out of data custody (image data is not transferred or stored) and agree to Orb scan and data custody.&nbsp;



Individuals who agreed to the third option consent to having their data stored and sent to “teams in the European Union and the United States.”



Molly Jane Zuckerman contributed reporting.



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