Worldcoin will open up its platform to companies and governments as part of the crypto project’s expansion plans and attempt to sign up more users.
The move will help the company with its mission to build “the biggest financial and identity community”, Ricardo Macieira, general manager for Europe at parent company Tools For Humanity, told Reuters.
Worldcoin’s crypto project and WLD token launched last week. It was co-founded by Sam Altman CEO of OpenAI. Its goal is to solve income inequality and online identity verification. Part of the solution is in the form of a silver physical orb that can check identities through an eyeball biometric scan.
Worldcoin expansion plans
Macieira outlined methods in which organisations could take advantage by using Worldcoin.
He gave the example of a coffee shop that could allow customers to pay through the crypto ID project. The café could give out freebies to boost sales and use the identity system to ensure only one free coffee is claimed per person.
“The idea is that as we build this infrastructure and that we allow other third parties to use the technology,” Macieira said.
This orb and identity technology will eventually be open-source. It will give governments, businesses and coders equal access to creating tools and products with the technology.
Macieira added: “The idea is that anyone can in the future build their own orb and use it to benefit the community that it’s aiming for.”
Concerns over data and privacy
Regulators and governments have already raised fears over the implications of collecting biometric data. These concerns over informed consent and other data privacy fears could be furthered if the technology is given access to governments and organisations.
Currently, watchdogs from the UK, Germany and France are looking into the crypto project.
Michael Will, president of the German regulator The Bavarian State Office for Data Protection Supervision, said there were fears that Worldcoin would process “sensitive data at a very large scale”, according to Reuters.
Meanwhile, the Kenyan Government suspended Worldcoin operations in the country on 2 August.
Minister Kithure Kindiki cited privacy and data collection as the reason behind this when posting its decision on Facebook.
“The Government is concerned by the ongoing activities of an organization calling itself ‘WORLD COIN’ which is involved in the registration of citizens through the collection of eyeball/iris data,” Kindiki said.
He added that this suspension would last until “relevant public agencies certify the absence of any risks to the general public whatsoever.”
The Worldcoin website said the crypto project is “completely private”. Users who provide their biometric data have the opportunity to delete it or use an encryption storage method
Macieira said Worldcoin would continue its global roll out in “all the parts of the world that will accept us.”
Worldcoin’s successful launch
After raising $115million in a funding round in May from venture capitalists including Andreessen Horowitz, Worldcoin got off to a successful start in July. As of 2 August, it has signed up over two million users.
Worldcoin set up sign-up sites across the globe, where people could scan their iris and gain access to the crypto project. At the time of writing, there are 103 different locations, including the UK, Portugal, Brazil and the US.
Lots of those who signed up to the platform said they joined to gain their 25 free WLD tokens, according to Reuters interviews in Britain, India and Japan..
Similarly, the accompanying ERC-20 token that went live on 24 July saw a relatively positive launch. As of 2 August, WLD was trading at $2.45, up 6% in the past day and 8% in the previous seven days.
