Worldcoin, a daring crypto startup co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s Worldcoin Launch, has the worldwide distribution of its services, aiming to create a dependable method for discerning humans from AI online, support global democratic systems, and significantly enhance economic opportunities.
The startup has garnered around $250 million in funding, with Andreessen Horowitz, Khosla Ventures, and Reid Hoffman among its supporters. Worldcoin has announced the international rollout of both its identity technology and token. Users can download the World App, the startup’s compatible wallet software, and use an Orb, Worldcoin’s distinctive eyeball-scanning device, to acquire their World ID.
Sam Altman’s Worldcoin Launch represents a bold attempt to coax the world into accepting their currency. The startup, led by Altman and Alex Blania, envisions a global crypto wallet (including some of their money) on every smartphone. But achieving this requires them to devise a way to verify each person’s uniqueness.
Having been in development for over three years, Worldcoin has discreetly enrolled individuals in many countries, including India, offering 25 Worldcoin tokens for onboarding. However, this journey has not been without challenges, with the project facing criticism for exploiting practices in impoverished countries. From May 2021 to July 2023, more than 2 million individuals across over 30 countries have validated their World IDs at an Orb, as reported by the startup.
Worldcoin’s website highlights its principal potential uses:
- strengthening incentives such as coupons and loyalty programs typically prone to fraud
- combating bots via identity verification
- paving the way for global democratic governance
Sam Altman’s Worldcoin Launch is retaining approximately 20% of all its tokens, which currently are not being launched in the U.S. The startup has set a 10 billion “WLD” tokens limit for the first 15 years. As of Monday’s launch, the maximum circulating supply of the ERC-20-based receipt is 143 million, according to Worldcoin’s whitepaper.
The startup asserts that Worldcoin could drastically increase economic opportunities, establish a robust solution for distinguishing humans from AI online, enable global democratic processes, and potentially pave the way towards AI-funded UBI.
Worldcoin describes itself as an “attempt at global scale alignment,” a statement that Twitter co-founder and crypto enthusiast Jack Dorsey found “cute.”
