Worldcoin, is a cryptocurrency project founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
The project’s core offering is its World ID, which the company describes as a “digital passport” to prove that its holder is a real human, not an AI bot.
The project has 2 million users from its beta period, and with Monday’s launch, Worldcoin is scaling up “orbing” operations to 35 cities in 20 countries. As an enticement, those who sign up in certain countries will receive Worldcoin’s cryptocurrency token WLD.
According to the Worldcoin white paper, a total of 10 billion WLD will be issued over the course of 15 years. Currently 143 million WLD are circulating as of the official launch. Of this amount, 43 million were allocated to verified World App users, and 100 million were sent to market makers to facilitate trading.
WorldCoin launched on Monday after years in development, promising to verify users’ identity by scanning their eyes and potentially solving one of the more pressing problems posed by recent advances in artificial intelligence that have made it harder to tell whether something was made by humans or an algorithm.
The use of iris-scanning technology ensures even distribution of coins and prevents fraud.
At the heart of the Worldcoin project is an eye-scanning “orb,” which must be used in-person and gives users a unique digital identity to verify they are a real human.
Worldcoin will be a global distribution system for Universal Basic Income, which is regular money for everyone from the government or organization to meet basic needs.
As of this week’s launch, Worldcoin Orbs are available in Hong Kong, Tokyo, Singapore, Seoul, Paris, Lisbon, Mexico City, São Paulo, Nairobi, New York, San Francisco and approximately 25 other cities around the world.