- Vitalik Buterin expressed concerns about privacy, security, and centralization
- The majority of verified Worldcoin users is in Asia and Africa
- Worldcoin received an investment from Sam Bankman-Fried, 3AC
After launching yesterday, Worldcoin reversed gains as the crypto community began to express concerns related to privacy, security, and the financial backing of the project co-founded by OpenAI’s Sam Altman, CoinDesk reported.
Worldcoin uses Orbs, hardware units that can identify and prove someone is human by scanning their irises. According to the company, being able to verify an individual in that way will be a crucial part of a new digital economy in the epoch of AI. Orb-verified users get WLD tokens.
Possible abuses of the system
In a blog post, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin expressed concerns about privacy, security, and centralization. Around 60% of verified Worldcoin users are in Asia and Africa, and the heavy promotions in developing regions raise concerns about exploitation.
Worldcoin received an investment from SBF, 3AC
Worldcoin received an investment from Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and CEO of now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, in its Series A funding round in October 2021. In May this year, Sam Altman negotiated an agreement to secure $100 million of funding for Worldcoin.
Kyle Davies, the co-founder of (also bankrupt) Three Arrows Capital, has insinuated that his company has invested in the project as well.
Very low circulating supply
The token has also come under fire for the very low amount in circulation. The total supply in the next 15 years will be 10 billion WLD, but at launch, just 143 million WLD is circulating. The creators explain that they want “a network of as many human beings as possible, and to achieve this, the majority of the WLD token supply will be given to new and existing users over the years to come.” During the first few days of operation, the token allocation is expected to increase.
After its launch, Worldcoin moved to the Optimism network, on which there are currently 155,000 wallets. According to Worldcoin’s website, it already has over 2 million Orb-verified users. Back in 2021, Bankless Times was one of the first media sources to report on the inception of the project.
