‘WTF Did This Dude Just Say?’ John Deaton Up in Arms About Worldcoin

Crypto lawyer John E Deaton took to Twitter today, asking questions about the widely circulated clip from a Bankless YouTube video wherein Alex Blania and Sam Altman talk about the regulatory scrutiny for crypto in the U.S. This was in response to the host’s questions about Worlcoin’s distribution. Worldcoin is OpenAI founder Sam Altman’s new crypto project.

“Wtf did this dude just say? Did he literally say that he can’t talk about how WorldCoin is distributed ‘because of the regulatory uncertainty’ in the United States?” asked Deaton in the Twitter post. The pro-XRP attorney added that if there was ever a signal to run away from a project, here it was.

Is he saying he can’t tell you how to acquire it or what you’re acquiring because he might get sued? Now that I think of it, is he being smart and just following legal advice or is he a moron. But this is an example of the chaos caused when you have bad faith regulators like @GaryGensler intentionally keeping the regulatory environment as unknowable.

Since the news of its launch hit stands yesterday, the crypto community has been in uproar about the Worldcoin project. The part that most have a problem with is the use of retinal scans. The orb made for this purpose quickly became a joke within the community, with many sharing memes and movie clips from dystopian films.

Other than the general issues with security concerns of scanning users’ irises, several influencers conveyed their doubts about its user base and enrollment methods. “Most alarming to me is how the WorldCoin team has boasted about how many users they have. When in reality they have been exploiting people in developing countries,” said popular analyst ZachXBT in his latest Twitter thread.

However, Worldcoin has also received support from various influencers in the crypto space. “If you’re worried about Worldcoin, you haven’t been paying attention for the past decade. World coin is voluntary. CBDCs are not,” said crypto analyst Toby Cunningham.