Have you ever thought about the day when AI could truly become the greatest contributor to our social productivity? When productivity is maximally liberated, what would be our value and the meaning of our existence?
From the advent of ChatGPT in November 2022 to the emergence of more and more various AI tools. An increasing number of jobs are gradually being automated. In addition to labor, even creative industries are inevitably affected. Just last year, an artist used AI-generated images to defeat all human photographers present at a world-class photography competition, fooling the organizers and the judging panel. Ultimately, the artist won the SWPA (Sony World Photography Awards)! I don't know what you think about this matter. But from my perspective, this explosive AI technology has deeply infiltrated all industries. Upon hearing this, do you feel confused or anxious about how much longer it will take for your job to be replaced by AI? If that day really comes, what will you do?
In fact, regarding this issue, the man who created ChatGPT, Sam Altman, established a crypto project called World Coin three years before ChatGPT was released, in 2020. So what is the relationship between this Worldcoin and artificial intelligence?
He foresaw that someday, when general artificial intelligence (AGI) becomes widespread, a large number of human jobs will be replaced. However, he still believes that the economic transformation brought about by this artificial intelligence revolution will definitely be more beneficial than harmful. In one of his articles, he mentioned that when the productivity brought by AI reaches a certain level of abundance, the prices of many types of labor (which determine the costs of goods and services) will approach zero.
At that time, global Universal Basic Income (UBI) can be realized. In Chinese, it means 'basic income for all'. Simply put, it refers to regular, unconditional cash payments provided to everyone regardless of their employment status or income level, made possible by the productivity brought by AI. This aims to solve issues such as income inequality, unemployment, and poverty caused by automation from AI.
Simply put, we humans no longer need to work and can rely on AI to support us. At that time, who will care whether their job will be replaced by AI?
As soon as you open Worldcoin's official homepage, you can see its core idea: THE GLOBAL ECONOMY BELONGS TO EVERYONE. This means that the global economy belongs to every individual. The vision of World Company is to build the largest, decentralized, and fair digital currency system in the world, aiming to distribute the global economy fairly and justly to everyone.
Worldcoin is currently in the testing phase, having launched its mainnet in the first half of 2023, raising $120 million at a valuation of $3 billion. Behind it are two entities: the Worldcoin Foundation and Tools for Humanity. The Worldcoin Foundation is dedicated to supporting and developing the Worldcoin ecosystem and community, while Tools for Humanity is a technology company that is the actual developer of Worldcoin.
To simply understand, the World Coin company and its plans consist mainly of three core parts.
World ID: The unique digital identity verification for every individual globally. You can understand it as your identity card in this WorldCoin world.
Worldcoin: The first token distributed for free to people globally. In simple terms, it's currency.
World App: A wallet used to hold World ID identity and facilitate payments, purchases, and transfers of World coin globally.
Are you trying to say something? So, the end of computing power is to create coins? Is this really such a mundane matter? I initially thought like you, but when I delved deeper into understanding, I realized that Sam had to solve technical challenges to achieve the grand vision of Worldcoin, which reveals its unusual significance.
Firstly, to achieve truly fair and just economic distribution with Worldcoin, the most important point is to ensure that each person can only have one World ID. But how can we prove that you are you, and uniquely you? Ever since the advent of ChatGPT, many have questioned whether modern AI has either passed the Turing test or is very close to doing so. Sam has long anticipated that one day, humans will inevitably be unable to distinguish whether a real person or AI is on the other end of the computer. At that time, many ill-intentioned individuals may produce AI in large quantities to disguise themselves as real people and carry out witch attacks, obtaining World coin's airdrop tokens countless times. How then can fairness and justice be achieved? Here, to simply understand witch attacks, the term comes from a novel (Witch) published in 1973, which features a woman diagnosed with schizophrenia and possessing 16 personalities, thus one person controls 16 'people'. So how can we ensure that every person on Earth can prove they are indeed human (and not AI) and that they have not claimed their free share in Worldcoin?
To solve this problem, Worldcoin directly adopts first principles. Isn't it necessary to verify that there is a real person behind this wallet address? The straightforward solution is direct live person verification! Therefore, Worldcoin has invested a significant amount of funds to develop a biometric device called Orb. Unlike the fingerprint scanning or facial recognition technologies we generally use, Orb captures an individual's unique eye image by scanning the iris. This image is then converted into a short digital code, allowing verification of whether the person has already registered. If not, they will receive a share of Worldcoin for free.
In the past few decades, fingerprint and facial recognition technologies have been widely applied for identity verification, as most major banks currently use fingerprint recognition. Most mobile devices unlock using facial recognition.
So why does Sam insist on spending time, money, and effort to create this identity verification ID using iris recognition? The answer is entropy.
Entropy is a concept in information theory that represents the degree of disorder or uncertainty in a system. The entropy of my room is quite high! In the fields of cryptography and computer security, entropy is used to assess the strength of passwords. The higher the entropy of a password, the harder it is to crack. You can think of it like a set of passwords; 123456 has low entropy, while @!Ay4e9#)f25e! has higher entropy than the former. Similarly, in authentication, if a biometric system has higher entropy, it becomes more difficult to deceive.
Fingerprint and facial recognition both have low entropy. Fingerprints are generally immutable, meaning they can be predicted and replicated. Facial recognition can also be easily deceived because it requires modeling a person's three-dimensional space.
Iris scanning has higher entropy because each person's iris is unique and unaffected by age and external environmental changes. Iris scanning technology uses near-infrared light to capture the unique patterns in the eyes and then compares them to pre-stored iris images.
In the rapid development of digital identity verification and biometric technology, we need to ensure that the methods we use can protect our privacy and security. Iris scanning technology is a high-entropy biometric technology that provides higher security and reliability, ensuring that our identity is correctly verified.
To quickly distribute Worldcoin to as many people as possible, the project will recruit legitimate businesses around the world as operators, who will then provide local users with popular science education and scanning services. After the operators undergo KYC, compliance training, and regional audits, they will receive a set of Orb devices and can start working.
Currently, Worldcoin has registered over 1 million users in about 25 countries globally, with over 1% of the population in Portugal having completed registration. With the current registration rate and expected deployment rate of Orb devices, Worldcoin is projected to attract more users in its first year than all other cryptocurrencies combined. If this trend continues, over 1 billion people will join in the next two years.
Currently, there are already 25 independent entrepreneurs or Orb operators actively testing over 30 Orb devices across 12 countries/regions in Africa, South America, Europe, and Asia. In the coming months, as hundreds of devices and Orb operators come online, the scale of testing is expected to increase. After the initial production phase, over 4,000 Orb devices will be distributed monthly, or 50,000 annually. So far, the average number of users signed up per week for each Orb operator is about 700.
In short, Worldcoin is developing globally by recruiting legitimate businesses as operators to provide services to local users, attracting an increasing number of users. Currently, there are hundreds of devices and operators testing worldwide, and the scale will continue to expand in the future.
To summarize, what is Worldcoin? Worldcoin is when the productivity brought by AI has become abundant enough to provide every human being with the money needed to maintain basic carbon-based life. To achieve fair distribution of Worldcoin, it uses iris scanning certification to ensure that each real person has only one World ID and World APP wallet account, fundamentally solving the issue of fair distribution.
Regarding the concept of Worldcoin, different people may have different feelings and opinions. Some may feel excited and hopeful, seeing it as a potentially new type of currency and financial system brought about by the AI revolution that could lead to global economic and social transformation. However, some may hold reservations, viewing it as a hollow utopian world that is difficult to realize in reality.
Throughout history, the essence of human work has been to sell one's time and labor for wages to sustain one's life. When the day comes that this concept can become a reality, humanity can obtain enough resources and wealth to break free from reliance on work and pursue what they love. Isn't this one of the visions that has existed throughout human history? The essence and meaning of human work will change completely. Of course, all this is just one of many possible scenarios in countless parallel worlds. So, if we are fortunate enough to encounter such a possibility, will humanity become freer and more creatively enriched, or will we lose those unique characteristics that distinguish us from artificial intelligence?
