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In response to the rollout of the Worldcoin crypto services, Vitalik Buterin published a detailed essay about biometric proof of personhood.
Worldcoin’s Mission to Help Distinguish Humans from AI Bots Online
The CEO of OpenAI Sam Altman together with Alex Blania founded Worldcoin over three years ago. The main idea behind the project is to present a solution which can effectively verify human identity online without violating users’ privacy.
With AI technology developing extremely rapidly in the latest months, many believe that soon it’s going to take over lots of human jobs leaving thousands unemployed. It might also get to the point where it will become very difficult to tell the difference between humans and AI bots online.
Worldcoin offers a digital proof of personhood called World ID. In order to get a World ID, one needs to use an Orb, a sophisticated biometric verification device which scans users’ irises to verify that they’re human.
Worldcoin also confirmed that it plans to create an AI-funded Universal Basic Income (UBI) service, thus helping to combat income inequality. Users in the countries “where laws allow” should be able to receive the Worldcoin digital currency (WLD) for simply being human.
Worldcoin Starts the Rollout of Its Services
On July 24, Worldcoin published a letter from cofounders on its website announcing the official launch of the product. One can access the Worldcoin services via World App, the company’s owned crypto wallet which is already available on iOS and Android. However, to get verified for World ID, it’s also required to visit an Orb, the eyeball-scanning device which is not globally distributed yet.
Over 2 million people already signed up for World ID during the project’s Beta phase. Numerous crypto exchange platforms such as Binance, OKX, and Huobi have already confirmed the listing of the Worldcoin’s token.
Vitalik Buterin Describes Potential Risks of the Worldcoin’s Identity Verification System
On the same day of Worldcoin’s launch, the Ethereum network cofounder Vitalik Buterin published an extensive blog post about biometric proof of personhood in general and World ID in particular.
According to Buterin, proof of personhood solutions are crucial as they help solve “a lot of anti-spam and anti-concentration-of-power problems” as well as increase privacy and reduce dependence on centralized authorities. Many apps today use government-backed identity systems such as state IDs or credit cards, which inevitably intrude on users’ privacy.
However, digital identity verification solutions have their issues as well. Buterin identifies at least four major risks with Worldcoin’s construction: privacy, accessibility, centralization, and security.
Vitalik Buterin then compares World ID to other types of identity verification and concludes that there is no ideal form of proof of personhood:
“I definitely do not envy the people attempting the task, and it will likely take years to find a formula that works. The concept of proof-of-personhood in principle seems very valuable, and while the various implementations have their risks, not having any proof-of-personhood at all has its risks too…”
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