The price of Worldcoin $WLD, the token of Sam Altman’s headline-grabbing, eye-scanning orb conception, has fallen to a new low of 25% in the past week following increasing global scrutiny.
At the time of writing, the price of WLD is trading at $1.71, down by a quarter over the past seven days. Earlier in the day on 11 August, it registered a new all-time low of $1.66.
The dip comes after several countries have begun to crack down on its legitimacy. Nairobi police recently raided a Worldcoin warehouse, while Argentina has launched its own probe into the project, and French regulators have called its legality into question.
It was also reported that the UK’s data regulator, the Information Commissions Office (ICO), was looking into the validity of Worldcoin.
According to its website, there are more than 2.2 million Worldcoin users and 120 countries with verified ‘privacy-preserving digital identity network’ World ID users, with 34 countries where ‘orb’ verifications have happened. It also says that the average daily wallet transactions in the past seven days stands at 185,546.
What is Worldcoin?
The Worldcoin site states that it “aims to establish universal access to the global economy regardless of country or background. It is designed to become the world’s largest human identity and financial network, giving ownership to everyone. All with the intention of welcoming every person on the planet and establishing a place for all of us to benefit in the age of AI.”
‘Proof of personhood’ (PoP) is one of the core ideas behind the project, Worldcoin says, and “refers to establishing an individual is both human and unique”.
“Once established, it gives the individual the ability to assert they are a real person and different from another real person, without having to reveal their real-world identity.”
The makers go on to say: “World ID aspires to be personbound, meaning a World ID should only be used by the individual it was issued to. It should be very difficult to use by a fraudulent actor who stole or acquired World ID credentials. Further, it should always be possible for an individual to regain possession of a lost or stolen World ID.”
But even Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has questioned the risks involved with Worldcoin.
Buterin took to his blog to help people decide whether or not they should bow down and scan their eyes before the “new spherical overlords”.
He pointed out four major risks with Worldcoin’s PoP construction, which were: privacy, accessibility, centralisation and security.
While he did find the concept behind Worldcoin valuable, he stated: “I look forward to seeing more progress on all types of proof of personhood, and hopefully seeing the different approaches eventually come together into a coherent whole.”
