Sam Altman-Backed Wordcoin Seems on the Verge of Going Out of Business
In Brief
Wordcoin was launched in 2020 with the idea of giving people free money and requiring them to scan their iris on a special device to create a cryptographic key that would sign all transactions in the blockchain.
Wordcoin has passed one million sign-ups from individuals in diverse countries, but skepticism about crypto is supported by decision-makers.
In one of our earlier posts, we promised to discuss Altman’s independent efforts, which, at first glance, seem to have little to do with OpenAI’s activities. We’re starting with Wordcoin.
The project itself was launched in 2020. The essence was simple: Let’s give people free money and see how they react. But Altman would not have been Altman if he had not offered something special: In exchange for receiving a password, the user had to agree to scan their iris on a special device. Using some special processes, the device hashes the iris’s image and creates a cryptographic key that would sign all blockchain transactions based on this hash. You can’t steal an eye. If someone tried to go the illegal and brutal way and tried to remove it, it would be ruined beyond recognition and thus useless. This means such an infrastructure could become a platform for distributing basic income worldwide without the fear of the funds getting into the wrong hands. The plans were grandiose, but suddenly something went wrong.
First, the project was criticized by Edward Snowden. He asked whether people were really willing to provide a business with their iris scan. After all, it’s not a password. You can’t change your eyes, you’ve got just one set that’s going to last you a lifetime. If something goes wrong, it’ll go terribly wrong.
Altman responded to this remark with something akin to “I didn’t think that someone might dislike it so much, interesting.” Well, his attitude toward the privacy of personal data is, no doubt, very interesting.
After the scandalous started, the project was not heard from for a long time. However, a while ago it resurfaced and rolled out a platform called World ID. What is it in essence?
The platform provides an OATH protocol for logging in to various sites, mobile applications, or crypto wallets. It will work like the “login with Google” button: Click the “login with World ID” button and log in.
To create an account in the protocol, you will need to come to a special scanning center and scan your iris. Then, your private key will be saved in the World App installed on your phone. A public key will also be created; protocol will put it in the blockchain, and everyone will be able to see that a person has performed such and such an action (for example, transferred money to another person), and whether they really had the right to do this.
At the same time, the tricky protocol ZKP (Zero-Knowledge Proof) ensures that two separate actions can be linked to one account — the system will only see that “someone” did “something,” but if they do not want to reveal their identity, it will not be possible to determine who was behind the transaction.
Unusually, the company even posted open-source drawings of their retinal scanning sphere. The developers do not provide the firmware code; this is more necessary for vendors who want to establish the production of such devices.
Interestingly, Wordcoin started the post that announced the release of its new product by mentioning a post about GPT-4. Say, AI will come soon, and nobody won’t be able to distinguish comments left by humans from those written by bots. Wordcoin found a differentiator from all similar projects available on the market: Its product is going to be a solution to deal with just that!
At the moment, the project is getting very strange. Trust in crypto has been severely undermined by the latest news, and it will be hard enough to convince people they should give their biometric data to to some crypto company, no matter how cool the algorithms under the hood are.
See for yourself: At first, the team of Wordcoin stated that the project would have one billion active users by 2023, but the project has barely passed one million sign-ups from individuals in various countries, including Argentina, Chile, India, Kenya, Portugal, Spain, and Uganda.
Read more related articles:
Disclaimer
In line with the Trust Project guidelines, please note that the information provided on this page is not intended to be and should not be interpreted as legal, tax, investment, financial, or any other form of advice. It is important to only invest what you can afford to lose and to seek independent financial advice if you have any doubts. For further information, we suggest referring to the terms and conditions as well as the help and support pages provided by the issuer or advertiser. MetaversePost is committed to accurate, unbiased reporting, but market conditions are subject to change without notice.
About The Author
Damir is the team leader, product manager, and editor at Metaverse Post, covering topics such as AI/ML, AGI, LLMs, Metaverse, and Web3-related fields. His articles attract a massive audience of over a million users every month. He appears to be an expert with 10 years of experience in SEO and digital marketing. Damir has been mentioned in Mashable, Wired, Cointelegraph, The New Yorker, Inside.com, Entrepreneur, BeInCrypto, and other publications. He travels between the UAE, Turkey, Russia, and the CIS as a digital nomad. Damir earned a bachelor's degree in physics, which he believes has given him the critical thinking skills needed to be successful in the ever-changing landscape of the internet.
More articles
Damir is the team leader, product manager, and editor at Metaverse Post, covering topics such as AI/ML, AGI, LLMs, Metaverse, and Web3-related fields. His articles attract a massive audience of over a million users every month. He appears to be an expert with 10 years of experience in SEO and digital marketing. Damir has been mentioned in Mashable, Wired, Cointelegraph, The New Yorker, Inside.com, Entrepreneur, BeInCrypto, and other publications. He travels between the UAE, Turkey, Russia, and the CIS as a digital nomad. Damir earned a bachelor's degree in physics, which he believes has given him the critical thinking skills needed to be successful in the ever-changing landscape of the internet.
