What is Worldcoin? A plain English orb guide that gives you the cryptography to scan your eyeballs

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A futuristic device called the Worldcoin orb is back in the news. The company behind it just donated millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency tokens to those who agreed to let the object scan their irises.

Worldcoin says this is just the start and it is in the middle of a world tour to add more eyeball scans to the more than 2 million already collected. And no, it’s not a science fiction movie. The company is really doing this as part of an ambitious project that it says will preserve our humanity as artificial intelligence increasingly takes over the world.

So what is it exactly? And, perhaps more importantly, should you consider signing up?

What is the orb and what is it used for?

The orb is shiny and the size of a large grapefruit, and was built with the help of a top Apple designer. Worldcoin has manufactured around 1,500 devices and is building more. You can see a photo of one above.

The orb has only one purpose: to scan and register your iris. It then converts the biometric image into an impenetrable string of numbers, which Worldcoin calls an IrisCode. When combined with an algorithm, the code verifies that you are a unique human being and confirms this through an app on your phone.

Fortunes Leo Schwartz accepted a scan in March, read his article if you want the full technical explanation.

How do I register?

Worldcoin offers the orb service in 35 cities around the world, including Miami and New York. The company is also in the midst of a roadshow that will take the device to a series of pop-up sites. You can find a list of locations on the Worldcoins website.

What’s the point?

Worldcoin is owned by a parent company called Tools for Humanity that wants to bring blockchain-based digital identity tools to everyone. The premise is that, in a world dominated by bots and artificial intelligence, it will become difficult to tell who is real and who is a machine.

The best solution, according to the company, is to use your unique iris image as a surefire way to prove your humanity.

Who is behind all this ?

The Worldcoin orb is the pet project of Sam Altman, a Stanford high school dropout and entrepreneur who ran Silicon Valley’s prestigious Y Combinator incubator for years. Currently, Altman is best known as the founder and CEO of OpenAI, the company that developed the popular AI tool Chat GPT.

Worldcoin has raised over $200 million from venture capital funds like Khosla Ventures and Bain Capital.

What is the crypto angle?

Those who agree to have their iris scanned receive a small amount of cryptocurrency tokens known as Worldcoin, or WLD. The tokens started trading this week and are currently worth just over $2 each.

Worldcoin distributed the tokens through an airdrop, which means sending them directly to the wallets of eligible recipients rather than listing them on an exchange. Users in the United States were not eligible to receive the airdrop due to regulatory issues, but that could change.

Further down the road, Worldcoin envisions a world where tokens are part of a larger ecosystem in which a wide variety of services verify identities with iris scans. The company also thinks it could be part of a futuristic universal basic income system.

Should I register? Is it safe?

It’s up to you. Worldcoin says the orb is designed so that no one, not even the company itself, is able to identify you using an advanced privacy technology called zero-knowledge proofs.

Although this technology is considered effective by privacy experts, critics have warned that giving your biometrics to a private company is dangerous, and some say they don’t trust Worldcoin to act responsibly.

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