How much of the $145 million worth of Worldcoin token, #WDL, that was traded in the last 36 hours after its launch, were you part of?
According to Google Trends, Kenya, China, Hong Kong, Portugal, and Singapore had the top five searches for #Worldcoin in the last seven days.
But is Worldcoin truly good for the world?
First, let's see what #Jack, the former #Twitter CEO, has to say.
"At no time should a corporation or state own any part of the global financial system," - Jack Dorsey
Jack has been a believer in decentralization for a long time. He loves #Bitcoin and supports other decentralized projects, such as #Nostr.
The statement made by Jack shows that there is something to think about when we look at Worldcoin.
Yes, it's aimed at providing universal income for all.
It wants to also transform the self-identity system to allow everyone to have a "safe" ID in a world full of government control.
However, what makes Worldcoin qualified to make these solutions feasible and good for the world?
While many see a good project that can impact the world positively, Jack sees a new "banana peel" on the forest floor of global finance.
Why?
The fight between centralization and decentralization.
Do you think Jack has a point here?
While you're looking at that, let's see what the Ethereum man said about Worldcoin.
Vitalik Buterin
In an over 5,000-word blog post, the co-founder of #Ethereum acknowledged the good work Worldcoin has done.
He was particular about its use of Ethereum as its base layer for development, which also deployed the "Optimism stack, and protecting users' privacy with ZK-SNARKs."
However, he affirmed his fear of four major elements linked to Worldcoin: privacy, accessibility, centralization (just like Jack said), and security.
#Vitalik hinted that these are huge aspects that come to mind when he thinks of the Worldcoin project.
Here are short statements from him about each element:
Privacy:
"The registry of iris scans may reveal information. At the very least, if someone else scans your iris, they can check it against the database to determine whether or not you have a World ID."
Accessibility:
"World IDs are not going to be reliably accessible unless there are so many Orbs that anyone in the world can easily get to one."
(Orbs are a physical device designed to be used for registering users on the Worldcoin platform.)
Centralization:
"The Orb is a hardware device, and we have no way to verify that it was constructed correctly and does not have backdoors."
Hmmm…
Security:
"Users' phones could be hacked, users could be coerced into scanning their irises while showing a public key that belongs to someone else, and there is the possibility of 3D-printing "fake people" that can pass the iris scan and get World IDs."
At the end of his exposition, he said that there is a need for a Proof of Personhood system for the world. However, there is no perfect method that can be used to create such a system today, as each defined method - Social-graph-based, General-hardware biometric, and Specialized-hardware biometric - have pros and cons.
Therefore, there is a need to harness the pros of each system while reducing the cons.
Anita Posch
Anita, an author and Bitcoin advocate, gave it hot in a tweet about her dislike for the project:
"A global database of human IDs issued after an eye scan, paid for with useless Worldcoin token, connected with all financial transaction data of each individual, managed by a centralized non-profit collecting sensitive data for KYC/AML. WHAT COULD GO WRONG?"
She revealed what the Worldcoin website said about being able to "collect certain categories of personal data, including sensitive personal data, for permissible purposes, such as to comply with any applicable legal KYC/AML requirements".
Are these real concerns, or are they minor?
Finally, Anita said that the Worldcoin token may take the path of the Facebook coin, which was killed before seeing daylight, as it's unclear how many nations will allow Worldcoin to implement its vision in their countries.
What's your take on this?