Author: CloudY, Jam
Editor: Vincero, YL
Review: Yasmine
This article takes Zuzalu's sociological experiment as an introduction, and by comparing the business empires of Elon Musk and Sam Altman, it aims to understand and analyze the feasibility of blockchain technology and Cryptocurrency in the future world, especially the combination of identity authentication and monetary payment systems represented by third world countries.
overview
Karl Marx【1】might like ETH, Dogecoin, and Worldcoin.
Vitalik's sociological experiment Zuzalu. Zuzalu provides "identity registration certificates" for registered participants with the help of ZuPass and zero-knowledge proof technology, and promotes the implementation of democratic governance by setting up a town hall. Therefore, some people compare it to "the early stage of Ethereum in an abstract sense." The two have established a natural connection because of Vitalik, but they are different. Zuzalu is metaphysical, while Ethereum is concrete. Ethereum's programmability helps developers implement customized identity authentication through smart contracts. Ethereum's currency payment is achieved by executing smart contracts, which meets the currency payment requirements of ERC20 standards, but mainly ETH.
Elon Musk's Mars colonization plan. Musk's "Starlink" terms claim that Mars is a free planet and does not recognize Earth's laws [2].
Since his vision is to bring humans to Mars, the identity verification and currency payment of humans on Earth need to be reproduced on Mars. The acquisition of Twitter and the inclusion of CryptoCurrency such as Dogecoin as an acceptable payment currency for its products have undoubtedly become an important part of Musk's Mars colonization plan.
Sam Altman’s concept of “global citizenship” [3].
Altman found that many people in the world, especially those in third world countries, find it difficult to have a legal identity certificate, and the financial infrastructure in these countries is still in an imperfect stage, so it is difficult for these people to have a basic bank account. The construction of Worldcoin provides a new digital identity authentication and currency system, which realizes identity authentication by scanning the iris of everyone on the earth, and $WLD is the currency in its ecosystem.
The businesses envisioned by the three above mentioned people have the following common points:
• 1) They all focus on and explore the broad topics of identity authentication and monetary payment.
• 2) To achieve the goal of (1) by building a world-class platform.
*Note [1]: Marx advocated that the proletariat should unite to oppose exploitation and oppression and strive for the liberation of all mankind and social progress.
*Note [2]: From the consumer service testing terms when Starlink was launched.
*Note [3]: Usually refers to those who believe that they transcend national boundaries and ethnic identities and regard all of humanity as a whole community.
Zuzalu: Exploring a country without borders
Zuzalu's Vision and Technical Requirements
Zuzalu is a crypto community that is based in the real world, also known as a summer camp about crypto, immortality, and philosophy. In Zuzalu, participants register through ZuPass and obtain identity authentication using zero-knowledge proof to verify the identity of residents. This experiment aims to explore the programmability and smart contracts of Ethereum to achieve customized identity authentication and digital currency payments [4].
In Zuzalu, participants, including researchers, scholars, founders, etc., discussed in depth topics such as immortality, public goods, zero-knowledge proofs, artificial intelligence, coordination and network states for two months. Zuzalu is committed to exploring how to apply blockchain technology to urban governance and operations to improve process transparency, credibility and verifiability. Immortality is one of Zuzalu's important topics. Blockchain technology is believed to improve the efficiency of data management, intellectual property protection, trial transparency, fund raising, etc. in the field of life sciences. In addition, Zuzalu also explored how blockchain can solve the extreme risks brought by artificial intelligence. The development of artificial intelligence may lead to super intelligence, and blockchain technology is believed to be used to resist the risks brought by super artificial intelligence.
According to multiple participants, Zuzalu aims to build a borderless digital nation where every digital citizen has a fairer and more transparent identity authentication and a customizable digital currency payment system.
Overall, Zuzalu is a unique and ambitious experiment that brings together blockchain technology, cryptocurrency, life sciences, artificial intelligence, and philosophy. It seeks new ways to improve all aspects of society, from urban governance to scientific research and AI safety. Participants collectively envision a future where technology promotes inclusion, transparency, and global cooperation in the digital sphere.
*Note [4]: From Shuyao (Twitter @hotpot_dao)
Elon Musk Matrix: Xeet and Digital Identity, Dogecoin and the Future of Digital Payments
Musk Matrix
Xeet (formerly Twitter) and Dogecoin serve as the base matrix to connect the Musk matrix.
As a world-renowned social media platform with a huge user base, Xeet can provide Musk with a powerful digital payment and cryptocurrency promotion platform. By integrating Xeet with digital payment functions, it can promote the popularization of digital currency payment methods and allow users to realize digital payment transactions on Twitter.
Secondly, Musk has mentioned and called out Dogecoin many times, showing his interest in cryptocurrencies. Although Dogecoin was born as a meme coin, it has gained more recognition and attention due to Musk's support. By promoting the development and application of Dogecoin, he can further explore and promote cryptocurrency as a means of payment and realize the application of digital currency payments in a wider range of business scenarios.
The above-mentioned Xeet and Dogecoin and Musk's other commercial versions can be well connected to form a large and comprehensive digital ecosystem. For example, companies such as Tesla, which has been listed, SpaceX, SolarCity and The Boring Company, which have not been listed, can promote services that support cryptocurrency payments through the Xeet platform. Users can use digital currency to purchase Tesla electric cars, SpaceX space travel and other services to realize payment applications. In addition, the neuroscience company Neuralink can also play an important role in the digital payment ecosystem. In the future, through brain-computer interface technology, users can even directly use brain signals for digital payment authentication, further improving the convenience and security of payment.
*Note [5]:
Tesla, Inc.: Tesla is a leading electric car manufacturer and energy company.
SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies Corp.): SpaceX is a private aerospace company founded in 2002. The company's goal is to reduce the cost of space exploration and achieve the goal of human landing on Mars. SpaceX has successfully developed a variety of heavy rockets such as Falcon 1, Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy, and became the first aerospace company to achieve vertical recovery and reuse of rockets. Its greater role in Musk's matrix is to cooperate with the layout of Starlink.
SolarCity: SolarCity is a solar energy services company founded in 2006.
Neuralink: Neuralink is a neuroscience company founded in 2016. The company aims to develop brain-computer interface technology to connect the human brain with computers and other external devices, providing solutions for treating neurological diseases and enhancing human cognitive abilities.
The Boring Company: The Boring Company is a tunnel construction company founded in 2016. The company aims to develop underground tunnel systems to alleviate urban traffic congestion.
Musk's enthusiasm for digital payments
It can be said that Musk has always had a dream about the field of digital payment, and through continuous exploration, he has fitted it into his own business matrix.
According to his own statement, his mission is to promote technological progress and create a better future, and the payment field is one of the technological innovations he values. From the time he founded X.com (later renamed PayPal), an online payment company, we can see his pursuit and passion for digital payment solutions. Musk's original intention in creating PayPal was to create a global payment method to make cross-border transactions easier and solve the limitations of traditional payment systems. Although PayPal was later acquired by eBay, his interest in digital currency and payment has never been severed. To some extent, Twitter's name change to Xeet and the icon change to "X" is also a tribute to PayPal.
In the subsequent entrepreneurial process, he explored projects related to digital currency and encryption technology. Until the emergence of Dogecoin and the acquisition of Twitter, Musk's digital payment matrix returned to his business map and may play an extremely important role in the future.
In addition, Musk praised WeChat for its powerful functions, saying that it can do everything and has no spam. [6] He appreciated its functions, including messaging, voice and video calls, social media, food delivery, mobile payments, games, and news. Elon Musk's praise for WeChat may be because he has seen the success of the app in social, payment, and service, and believes that its versatility and user experience are inspiring in the field of digital payments.
*注【6】：https://hypebeast.com/zh/2022/6/elon-musk-wants-twitter-to-be-more-like-tiktok-and-wechat
Musk’s Web3 ambitions
A Xeet account can become a digital identity certificate or even a digital wallet; Dogecoin may just be the beginning of its "new digital payment" matrix.
Xeet accounts play a key role, not only as digital identity proof, but also as digital wallets. By leveraging social graphs, Xeet accounts can effectively define and authenticate users’ identities, making digital identity authentication more secure and convenient.
Specifically, Xeet accounts can use social graphs to define/authenticate identities, and Twitter avatars can link NFT PFP and NFT Tweet Tiles. "Tweet Tiles" is a feature officially launched by Twitter that attaches customizable formats to tweets, allowing users to interact with Twitter Tiles, with content covering text, images, videos or other elements, making the tweet timeline more dynamic and visual.
Twitter has expanded this feature to the NFT market, where NFT projects or creators can display NFTs in their tweets, providing NFT supporters with a platform to display and share digital collections.
According to a report by Financial Time in January this year, Twitter, under the leadership of Elon Musk, was exploring the introduction of payment services on its platform as a means of generating new revenue. Esther Crawford, a core member of Twitter, is designing a payment architecture with the goal of providing financial services such as "peer-to-peer transactions and savings accounts." Musk envisions making Twitter a "universal application" that integrates messaging, payment, and commerce. Twitter has registered as a payment processor with the U.S. Treasury Department and is obtaining the necessary regulatory approvals.
Therefore, Musk's payment dream can be realized through Xeet, support for Dogecoin payments, and integration of his other business territories. Such a comprehensive ecosystem will bring new innovations and possibilities to the field of digital payments, promote the widespread use of digital currencies, and promote the further development of payment methods. We may witness a digital ecosystem built by commercial versions such as Xeet and Dogecoin, which will bring more innovations and possibilities to digital payments and change our payment methods and habits.
Such a future may not be far away.
Worldcoin and the Third World
How does Worldcoin physically prove that I am "me"?
Worldcoin claims that its goal is to solve the problem of human identity through a privacy-first, autonomous control and decentralized approach.
According to estimates from the World Bank’s ID4D database, nearly 1 billion people worldwide lack any form of legally recognized identity. Another 3.4 billion people have some type of legally recognized identity but struggle to use it in the digital world.
This “digital identity” is defined as the ability to definitively authenticate one’s identity through digital channels, unlocking access to banking, government benefits, education, and many other critical services. Digital IDs will not only empower citizens and societies, but also enable real, inclusive economic gains.
The vision of Worldcoin is to become the world's largest and most inclusive identity and financial public product for all mankind.
The WorldCoin protocol currently includes:
World ID is a privacy-preserving digital identity designed to solve the problem of personal identification, using biometrics to prove an individual’s unique personality.
Worldcoin (WLD) is a digital currency that can be freely distributed to independent individuals as permitted by law.
World App is the first application compatible with World ID, carrying digital assets and fiat-backed stablecoins, and can be used for payments, purchases and transfers around the world.
According to Wroldcoin data on July 13, the number of World ID registrations exceeded 2 million, and it took less than half the time to reach the first 1 million, with an average of more than 40,000 people registering for a verified World ID each week. Registrants from all over the world, including Barcelona, Berlin, Buenos Aires, New York, Seoul, and Tokyo, registered through iris and biometric scanning through The Orb developed by Tools for Humanity (TFH), and they will receive 25 WLD tokens as a reward. Alex Blania, co-founder of Worldcoin and CEO of Tools for Humanity, said: "The goal of Worldcoin is to enable anyone in the world, regardless of background, location or income, to enter the growing digital and global economy in a privacy-protecting and decentralized way."
Worldcoin's Technology and Applications
As shown in the figure, to obtain a World ID, users first need to download the World App to store their World ID. Then they can make an appointment through the official website to have their iris scan verified. Once verified through Orb, the individual will be issued a World ID.
This World ID can verify the identity of the user to other protocols through zk proof on the chain, and can be cross-chain. At the same time, where permitted by law, through the World ID, users can receive a certain number of WLD tokens every week. World App allows users to use Apps through WalletConnect on the Optimisam chain, such as trading on DEX.
Importantly, other developers can leverage World ID in their applications without permission using the World ID-based SDK framework, simplifying the interaction between Web3 and Web2 applications.
Worldcoin's Technical Architecture
When performing person verification, Orb first uses sensors to ensure that the person standing in front of it is human. It then acquires, processes, and by default immediately deletes a series of iris images to create an iris code, which is a digital representation of the iris texture.
After creating an iris code, while Orb will delete the iris image immediately by default, individuals can also choose to back up their image. This will share their iris image with Worldcoin to train the project’s iris detection and segmentation models and similar algorithms.
Worldcoin is promoting the establishment of its own public chain based on OP Stack, which will enable it to inherit the account anonymity and transaction disclosure characteristics of Ethereum. As shown in the figure below, after using Orb to establish a World ID, its data will be published on the chain via the Worldcoin Protocol, and its identity can be verified by other applications on WorldApp through zk proof. The cross-chain architecture built into the SDK allows it to share identity information between the Ethereum mainnet, other Layer2s such as Optimism and Arbitrum, and non-EVM compatible chains such as Solana and Sui.
Worldcoin emphasizes the decentralization of the entire protocol in its roadmap, which simply means the decentralization of governance, development, and operations:
Governance: DAO-based foundation management
Development: Open source protocol and public device design
Operation: Diversification of operating entities
Applications of Worldcoin
Worldcoin hopes to allow everyone to participate in the global digital economy through DeFi and DID anywhere, and to achieve equal opportunities on a global scale. The more developed the network is, the more obvious its effect should be. In other words, establishing the World ID, an identity system that belongs only to independent individuals, and the WorldAPP, a wallet that can make payments, purchases and transfers worldwide, will make it the entrance to Web3, so that everyone has the opportunity to participate in the global economy, thereby solving the current problem of unequal opportunities that mainly exists in third world countries.
This is why Worldcoin wants to distribute WLD to 1 billion people around the world for free, so as to rapidly expand its financial network and occupy a very Crypto narrative. According to the Worldcoin article, it has the following applications:
identity
Real person identification: Twitter bots, spam, and automated calls are all symptoms of a lack of robust and frictionless digital identity. These problems are exacerbated by rapidly evolving AI models that can fool CAPTCHAs and generate convincingly “human” content. Therefore, the solution proposed by Worldcoin for proof of identity is crucial, and it can be used as a public infrastructure. If every message or transaction contains a “verified human” property, a lot of noise can be filtered out of the digital world, especially to defend against Sybil attacks.
Currently, collective decision-making in Web3 relies heavily on token-based governance (one token, one vote). Although Gitcoin and others use quadratic voting to limit whales, they cannot resist Sybil attacks. When digital identities are introduced into the real world, they face problems of resource allocation and over-incentives. Therefore, reliable, Sybil-resistant proof of personality like World ID opens up a new solution for global democratic governance and resource allocation mechanisms, and it will become increasingly important for everyone to participate in its governance.
Identity-based financial applications
Corporate incentive alignment: Coupons, loyalty programs, referral programs, and other systems that share value with customers are prone to Sybil attacks and internal cheating because the cost of doing evil is extremely low, but the reward is high. Therefore, frictionless and fraud-proof digital identities can help align incentives and benefit consumers and companies. This can allow users to participate in the operation of a company in another form besides stocks or even partially own a company.
Equal distribution of social resources: Social subsidies and social welfare are particularly important in developing economies, because these countries' social welfare programs not only face the problem of using false identities to obtain resources beyond an individual's fair share, but also the mismatch of resource shares caused by backward identity statistics. In 2021, India saved $5 billion in subsidy programs by implementing a biometric system that reduced fraud. Decentralized personality proof protocols can extend similar benefits to any project or organization around the world. With the advancement of artificial intelligence, the right to fair distribution and the value created through universal basic income will be able to offset the problem of concentrated economic power to a certain extent. World ID can ensure that everyone registers only once and guarantees fair distribution.
Opportunities for third world countries to overtake
Worldcoin is a platform based on personality proof, on-chain credit system and Crypto payment system, which is a solution to the current predicament of third world countries. The current world monetary system and economic situation, as well as climate, epidemic and war, have caused the economic environment of third world countries to gradually deteriorate. They urgently need such a solution to reverse their decline. Today's infrastructure and the improvement of blockchain technology have given them the conditions to do so, and the demand for digital identity and new monetary system has given them the motivation to do so. Take Africa, the most typical example:
1) Current economic situation in African countries
The April 2023 edition of the Africa Pulse report shows that economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa remains sluggish and insufficient to reduce extreme poverty, weighed down by global economic uncertainty, poor performance of Africa’s largest economies, high inflation and a sharp deceleration in investment growth. Economic growth is expected to slow from 3.6% in 2022 to 3.1% in 2023.
In December last year, Ghana's inflation rate climbed to 54.1%, reaching its highest level in nearly 22 years. In January this year, Nigeria's inflation rate rose to 21.82% from 21.34% in the previous month, the highest level since September 2005.
The government faces growing debt payments and liquidity problems, which are related to high borrowing costs and a stronger dollar caused by the collapse of European and American banks.
Africa’s natural resource wealth holds huge untapped economic potential, which requires good sector governance, appropriate taxation to capture a larger share of resource rents, and regional cooperation and investment.
Curbing inflation remains central to achieving macroeconomic stability, and African governments have the power to undertake internal reforms to restore macroeconomic stability and better prioritize spending.
Economic performance has not been uniform across subregions of sub-Saharan Africa.
Investment growth slowed sharply across the board, and this decline was found across sub-regions, resource-rich and resource-scarce countries, and investor types (public, private, and foreign).
2) Infrastructure
In recent years, Africa's Internet and mobile Internet infrastructure has been rapidly built. According to the "Mobile Economy in Sub-Saharan Africa 2022" report released by the Global System for Mobile Communications Association, by the end of 2021, more than 500 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa have subscribed to mobile services, and the mobile user penetration rate is 46%. The report predicts that by 2025, 613 million people in the region will subscribe to mobile services, and the user penetration rate will reach 50%. And more than 84% of Internet connections in Africa are made through smartphones. According to data from the Nigerian Federal Communications Commission, as of June 2022, Nigeria has more than 150 million mobile Internet users, and the Internet penetration rate is about 70%.
Fintech and e-commerce have also been popular application tracks in Africa in recent years. DataSparkle data shows that these two tracks will continue to maintain strong growth despite economic headwinds in 2022. The number of active users of financial mobile applications in Africa increased by 26% from January of the same year to over 73 million in December 2022; the number of active users of shopping applications increased by 6% from January of the same year to over 36 million in December 2022.
3) Blockchain technology
Blockchain technology has evolved from the initial Bitcoin peer-to-peer cash system to Ethereum's global computer. With the emergence of smart contracts, a large number of new technologies and concepts have emerged. These mature solutions can be used to improve the current world currency system:
Different solutions under the same standard: Layer2/Rollup
Each country implements its own plans according to its own policies under the same standards, unifies the "measurements" and resolves system frictions under multi-party cooperation.
Identity and Credit System: DID
The identity and credit chain replaces traditional banks’ personal credit assessment, makes the identity authentication systems of various countries compatible with each other, and optimizes entry and exit management.
Asset and data ownership: Wallet + RWA + zk
The blockchain-based account system protects personal asset ownership, lowers the threshold for financial asset transactions, and provides everyone with the right to participate in economic activities, while using zk proof to ensure the security of national information and citizen data.
4) International Monetary System
From the Bretton Woods system established by 44 countries including the United States, Britain, France, West Germany, Canada, Italy, and Japan to the Jamaica system that specifically provides developing countries with greater exchange rate flexibility and policy space, some developed countries and international institutions have dominated, resulting in developing countries having less say in decision-making and international financial rule-making. At the same time, since developing countries may face some challenges in their financial systems and technological reserves, their full participation in the international monetary system is limited. Therefore, in the evolution of the international monetary system, there is almost no opportunity for developing countries to participate.
Blockchain-based identity authentication and Cryptocurrency-based cross-border instant payments may be a good opportunity for developing countries to create and deeply participate in a new international monetary system.
5) The need for digital identity and a new monetary system:
Unlike developed countries and large economies, third world countries mainly rely on cash currency systems, lack a mature credit system, have just started mobile payments, and have not established a sound banking system. Therefore:
• The country’s borrowing costs are high and external investment is difficult.
• The scope and categories of economic activities are restricted.
• There are not many historical obstacles in the process of adopting a digital currency system.
Currently, there are still a large number of citizens who do not have digital identities or do not benefit from digital identities. As shown in the figure below, all developing countries have the potential to gain significant GDP growth from the use of digital identities, and individual citizens are likely to obtain more than 50% of the value generated from digital identities. Take Nigeria as an example, 81% of its workforce is self-employed. Digital identities can help them participate in small and micro-entrepreneurship and investment, thereby obtaining support and protection from the government, and also help the government recover tax revenue lost due to income fraud. For Ethiopia, digital identities can bring it 41 million potential users in the financial industry, because this allows banks to conduct remote identity authentication and provide them with corresponding financial services, which will generate investments worth $2.5 billion. Therefore, the economic value that digital identities can create in emerging economies is far greater than that in mature economies.
The significance of a world-class platform
This world-class platform is a brand new narrative and has a huge potential market because its users are human beings all over the world. This is what DeSoc wants to achieve and what Satoshi Nakamoto wants to achieve.
Currently, the world-class platform covers major technology and Internet giants from the United States, China, Europe, Southeast Asia and Africa.
In the United States, companies such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Apple provide Internet services such as search engines, cloud computing, e-commerce, and smart devices around the world. Representative Chinese companies include Baidu, Tencent, Alibaba and Huawei, which also cover search engines, social media, e-commerce, cloud services, and communication equipment. Although Europe does not have giant companies like the United States and China, it also has many well-known technology companies, such as SAP, Spotify and ARM.
In addition, there are some platforms with significant influence in Southeast Asia and Africa, such as Grab and Transsion. Grab is the largest travel service platform in Southeast Asia, providing services such as taxi, food delivery and express delivery. Transsion is a mobile communication equipment manufacturer headquartered in China that occupies a significant share in the African market. Its mobile phone brands include Tecno, Infinix and Itel.
These world-class platforms have a huge user base and extensive influence in their respective regions. With the rise of emerging technologies such as blockchain, digital identity authentication and payment, more new global platforms may emerge in the future, which are expected to change the existing competitive landscape and promote the vigorous development of the digital economy around the world.
DeSoc and Satoshi Nakamoto's Bitcoin both attempt to break the monopoly of the traditional Internet industry and provide users with more secure, autonomous and privacy-protected digital identities and payment methods through decentralized technology. This is similar to the business visions of Zuzalu, Worldcoin, and Musk mentioned in this article. They are all exploring the fields of digital identity authentication and currency payment, and trying to build a world-class platform to drive ecological development with users, giving users greater control and privacy protection.
The potential market for these global platforms is huge because their user range is human beings all over the world. This covers not only already highly developed regions such as the United States, China, and Europe, but also developing countries such as Southeast Asia and Africa. In developing countries, digital identity authentication and payment systems are crucial because many people lack legal identity authentication and financial infrastructure, and these global platforms are trying to fill this gap. This will bring more convenience and opportunities to people in these regions.
However, there are still many challenges to building such a new platform on a global scale, including technical difficulties, legal and regulatory issues, privacy and data security, etc. But in any case, these emerging technologies and platforms are trying to change the existing Internet landscape and bring more rights and choices to users.
in conclusion
Sam Altman and Elon Musk both want to do the same thing, identity + payment, but their paths to achieve it are different.
• 1) Altman starts by determining the identity of each person, issuing airdrops, and gradually guiding users to use the built-in wallet to establish an ecosystem, which is more like surrounding the city from the countryside and building from the bottom up.
• 2) Musk uses the established Twitter social graph to build an Internet identity, and transforms Web2 into Web3 by integrating various Web3 projects and assets, just like a constitutional monarchy that changes the existing ecosystem.
By comparing Worldcoin, Twitter (now Xeet), and Vitalik’s sociological experiment (Zuzalu), we can draw the following conclusions:
Worldcoin: The main goal of Worldcoin is to achieve digital identity authentication through biometric verification such as iris scanning, and to provide a digital currency system to 1 billion people around the world by issuing tokens ($WLD) for free. Worldcoin attempts to build an ecosystem from the top up, gradually guiding users to use built-in wallets to establish a global digital identity authentication and currency payment system. It focuses on solving the problems of world citizen identity authentication and imperfect financial infrastructure.
Twitter (Xeet): Twitter's vision is to enable digital identity authentication and digital currency payments through social graphs and the existing Twitter social network. Elon Musk plans to use the existing Xeet user base and social graph to build digital identity. By integrating Web3 projects and assets, Web2 will be transformed into Web3, allowing the existing ecosystem to be upgraded to a new digital payment ecosystem. This approach introduces digital identity and payments into existing social networks by reforming and integrating existing platforms.
Zuzalu (Vitalik's sociological experiment): Zuzalu is a sociological experiment that provides identity authentication with the help of ZuPass and zero-knowledge proof technology, and explores the customization of Ethereum and the scalability of smart contracts to achieve customized identity authentication and digital currency payment. Zuzalu's goal is to explore how to use blockchain technology to supervise urban governance and operations, and improve process transparency, credibility and verifiability. This experiment focuses more on exploring the application of digital identity authentication and payment methods in urban governance and social operations.
In summary, these three projects differ in their goals and implementation paths. Worldcoin focuses on solving the identity authentication and financial infrastructure problems of citizen facilities in third world countries by building an ecosystem from multiple layers and dimensions. Twitter (Xeet) plans to introduce digital identity authentication and payment through existing social networks and social graphs, upgrading the existing platform to a new digital payment ecosystem. Zuzalu is an experimental project that explores the application of digital identity authentication and payment methods in governance and social operation projects in future cities.
Reference
[1] “Tweet: Worldcoin explained”
https://twitter.com/jason_chen998/status/1637845333056294913
[2] Digital Identity: The Key to Inclusive Growth
https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/McKinsey/Business%20Functions/McKinsey%20Digital/Our%20Insights/Digital%20identification%20A%20key%20to%20inclusive%20growth/MGI-Digital-identification-Report.ashx
[3] Vitalik: Biometrics are more effective in the short term, but social graph-based technologies are more robust in the long term.
https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2023/07/24/biometric.html
[4] Worldcoin: Pre-alpha version of cyberpunk social currency
https://twitter.com/0xNing0x/status/1657915306701111297
[5]《Deception, exploited workers, and cash handouts: How Worldcoin recruited its first half a million test users》
https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/04/06/1048981/worldcoin-cryptocurrency-biometrics-web3/
[6]《Twitter Collaborates With NFT Marketplaces to Enable NFT Tweet Tiles for Collectors》
https://www.nftgators.com/twitter-collaborates-with-nft-marketplaces-to-enable-nft-tweet-tiles-for-collectors/
[7]《Elon Musk pushes forward with Twitter payments vision》
https://www.ft.com/content/9d84d534-b2dd-4cff-85d1-aee137b26a45
[8]《Africa Pulse》
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/39615
[9] “Africa cannot escape the shock wave of the US and European banking crisis”
http://paper.people.com.cn/rmrbhwb/html/2023-04/15/content_25975829.htm