Almost everyone has had this dream: "Do nothing, just lie down every day and someone will give you money."

Now, this absolute "daydream" from every angle actually has a chance to come true.

On July 24, 2023, Worldcoin, a cryptocurrency co-founded by OpenAI head Sam Altman, was officially launched.

As soon as it went online, Worldcoin rose from the initial $1.70 to $3.58, a 111% increase in the first day’s price.

What exactly is Worldcoin, and what does it have to do with Sam Altman, the popular AI star? What ambitions does Sam Altman have behind Worldcoin?

01 "World Currency" for the People of the World

Even a year ago, Musk was the most famous technology star in the world; but now, OpenAI founder Sam Altman may be more famous than Silicon Valley's Iron Man.

However, Musk and Altman have one thing in common - in addition to their super successful main businesses, they also have a more ambitious side business. Musk, who makes electric cars, has the ultimate dream of leading the people of Earth into the universe; Altman, who studies AI, is really concerned about the ultimate question of how human society will operate after the arrival of general artificial intelligence AGI.

One of Altman's ideas is to provide "Universal Basic Income (UBI)" for humans in the "AI era", so that people all over the world can "share" the huge profits brought by AI.

However, in order to distribute money to billions of people around the world, the first thing to solve is the problem of identity verification.

The solution Altman found is Worldcoin, a Web3 project that aims to help people cope with the challenges brought by AI by solving "digital identity" and realizing "Universal Basic Income (UBI)".

Sam Altman has always been interested in crypto projects.

In his early years, he joined Y Combinator and launched a very crazy project in the United States - "Universal Basic Income (UBI)". In this plan, participants can get a fixed salary without any additional conditions, so that they can freely choose the career they love and no longer be trapped by food and clothing.

In March 2021, Sam Altman also spoke publicly for the crypto field, praising the "token" mechanism and believing that "tokens" can serve as "universal basic income (UBI)" to provide fair financial infrastructure for low-income people.

A few months later, Sam Altman, Alex Blania and Max Novendstern founded the cryptocurrency project - Worldcoin.

Alex Blania and Sam Altman｜Worldcoin

Worldcoin is an open source protocol supported by developers, individuals, economists and technical experts around the world, dedicated to expanding participation and access to the global economy. It consists of two parts: the Worldcoin Foundation, which is its initiator and guardian, focusing on the community development of Worldcoin, and Tools for Humanity (TFH), which is the actual technical development entity and currently serves as an advisor to the Foundation and the operator of the World App.

Interestingly, founder Sam Altman’s positioning of Worldcoin is keeping pace with the times and adjusting in a timely manner.

In its early days, Sam Altman positioned Worldcoin as a company focused on "Universal Basic Income (UBI)". He hopes to use cryptocurrency to distribute the huge wealth generated by AI to everyone in the world in equal amounts. Specifically, he hopes to airdrop "inclusive and open" cryptocurrency to 1 billion people who accept "iris scanning".

However, affected by negative news reports and the plummeting cryptocurrency prices, Worldcoin's progress was not smooth, and it was even forced to stop operations in at least seven countries. However, it happened that ChatGPT and AI became popular at this time, which provided Worldcoin with a new goal.

So, in March of this year, Altman repackaged Worldcoin into a project focused on "identity proof", emphasizing the "inherent value", "equal rights", "privacy protection" and "open cooperation" of being a "human" in the AI ​​era.

In this regard, Altman explained, "Due to the development of AI, the demand for systems that provide proof of personality, as well as the demand for wealth redistribution and new experiments in global governance systems is growing." Worldcoin also stated on its official Twitter that "the popularity of ChatGPT has brought about the challenge of distinguishing between humans and AI in the digital world."

Therefore, today the official description of Worldcoin is as follows:

Worldcoin is building the largest global identity and financial network, enabling ownership for everyone.

Our goal is to create universal access to the global economy, regardless of country or background, accelerating the transition to an economic future that benefits every person on the planet.

In short, the current Worldcoin wants to be the fairest global digital identity and cryptocurrency system. By using cryptocurrency as infrastructure, it can realize the concept of "inclusive finance" and make "the global economy belong to everyone."

This "vision" is of great significance because there are still more than hundreds of millions of people in the world who cannot verify their identity digitally, and they have no way to access the financial system and enjoy financial services.

It’s also worth mentioning that Worldcoin’s long-term goal is to create a completely “decentralized” system, but the project’s development is now managed by Tools for Humanity (TFH), with plans to eventually divest control to a non-profit foundation.

To date, more than 700,000 users in about 25 countries and regions, including Chile, France and Kenya, have signed up for Worldcoin. The company plans to fully launch the project in 2023 and hopes to quickly expand its user base.

However, when Worldcoin came out in 2021, many critics viewed it as a "dystopian nightmare." Despite this, it received support from many well-known investors such as a16z, Coinbase Ventures, and Day One Ventures. It also received support from the founders of multiple Ethereum projects, Polkadot, and the Web Foundation in the angel round of financing, with a total of US$125 million in two rounds of financing. A few days ago, it raised US$115 million in the C round of financing led by Blockchain Capital.

Faced with so many investors, what kind of business model has Worldcoin developed?

Worldcoin follows the same path as OpenAI, and it once announced in a statement that the company will transform into a non-profit organization. Moreover, transactions on the WorldAPP wallet are currently free. Not only is it free, but you can also get a cryptocurrency reward of $9 equivalent by participating in the background test in the wallet. You should know that all interactions on the chain require gas fees. The fact that WorldAPP is free means that they not only bear the handling fee, but also take money as "rebate subsidies."

It is estimated that when Worldcoin reaches a certain scale, it will inevitably charge fees. For example, after becoming an application entry-level platform, it can collect taxes. Another example is providing identity authentication services to third parties. This has been implemented since March this year. This may become a new profit model for Worldcoin.

It is also worth mentioning that Worldcoin’s ambition in Web3 is not limited to the field of cryptocurrency. It is also actively planning applications in social networks, voting, financial services, customer incentives, markets, currency distribution and other fields.

02How can "Web3" save "AI"

So, how does Altman plan to use Worldcoin to realize his vision of making the global economy belong to everyone?

Altman divides Worldcoin into three tasks: a privacy-preserving identity protocol (World ID), a global token (Worldcoin) that will be distributed free of charge to 1 billion people around the world, and a wallet system (WorldAPP) that supports the use of Worldcoin tokens, digital assets and traditional currencies for payments, purchases and transfers around the world.

Three important applications of Worldcoin｜Worldcoin

World ID

First of all, World ID is the premise for users to participate in the "global economy", which is the underlying identity protocol of the "global digital identity" authentication system that Worldcoin is trying to build. It is the identity certificate when users receive Worldcoin, so it is necessary to ensure "one person, one certificate" in order to truly achieve fair distribution of wealth.

To this end, Worldcoin uses the biometric device Orb to perform "iris scans" on users, providing them with a unique, verifiable digital identity - World ID. As one of the biological characteristics of the human body, the iris is extremely unique and stable and cannot be copied or imitated.

Orb, a device for iris recognition｜Worldcoin

At the same time, World ID adopts the "Proof of Personhood (PoP)" mechanism, which is a complex combination of customized hardware, machine learning technology, cryptography and blockchain technology. Through this credential, the World ID protocol enables everyone to prove their humanity online without relying on third-party institutions.

This innovative authentication method utilizes "zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP)" to maximize user privacy and achieve identity security through the World ID managed by the user himself.

In short, as an open and permissionless identity protocol, World ID has broad application prospects. It can not only be used as a safe and reliable "global digital passport", but also can prove a person's identity while protecting privacy.

This is crucial to solving the current problem of fake accounts caused by AI. For example, in social media, it can reduce the appearance of AI fake accounts and malicious comments, the spread of AI-generated misinformation, and even promote democratic governance on the Internet. In addition, it can also prevent AI accounts from participating in some work, ensuring that only real humans participate, thereby protecting human employment rights and interests.

In this regard, Worldcoin CEO Alex Blania said, "In this world where AI raises new questions about what is human and what is not human on the Internet, World ID is very important. This is also an example of the overlap between the cryptocurrency and AI industries." "It can help solve one of the most thorny problems on the Internet: preventing false identities from interfering with online activities without infringing privacy. In addition, potential applications include dealing with false profiles on social media, distributing universal basic income (UBI), and empowering new forms of digital democracy."

Worldcoin

As mentioned above, after completing the World ID authentication, users will receive Worldcoin tokens and obtain their own universal basic income (UBI), and then use these tokens to purchase daily necessities on the World App.

Considering that 65% of human jobs will be replaced by AI in the future, that is to say, in the near future, the population without income will account for more than 65% of the global total. The global distribution of WorldCoin can ensure that every user can obtain a fair and stable basic income, which can effectively alleviate the job losses caused by AI and provide people with a certain degree of economic security.

According to the plan, Worldcoin expects to issue 10 billion WLD tokens by the end of June, of which 2 billion will be used for long-term funding of developers and investors of the Worldcoin protocol, and the remaining 8 billion will be distributed free of charge to all users around the world.

How Worldcoin is distributed｜Worldcoin

In terms of token mechanism, Worldcoin adopts a "deflationary reward model" and uses task incentives to increase activity. This means that WLD tokens are not issued all at once, but are obtained by completing tasks. In the early stage, 1 token is obtained per week, and the time interval for token collection will increase over time, perhaps to 1 token per month, which is conducive to maintaining user activity.

Judging from the data, good results have been achieved. Currently, the number of registered users is close to 2 million. According to Altman’s vision, billions of people will use World ID to receive universal basic income (UBI) in the future.

World App

The last one is World App, which is a native wallet developed specifically for Worldcoin and also the carrier of WorldID. In other words, it is both a "crypto wallet" and an "identity card" in the AI ​​era.

World App is built on Polygon and can be downloaded and used by anyone at any time. Its purpose is to enable billions of people around the world to have access to "decentralized" identity and finance, so that they can participate in the "global economy."

The World APP debuted on May 8, 2023, and after extensive development and learning from more than 1.5 million beta users, the first phase of the World App is now available worldwide. With the establishment of the non-profit Worldcoin Foundation, the World App is undergoing a process of "decentralization" in terms of governance, operations, and grant activities.

“Now available in over 100 countries, with nearly 2 million users and 600,000 monthly active users, the World App has become the most popular way to get started with cryptocurrency,” Tools for Humanity (TFH), the team behind the World App, said in a statement to The Chainsaw.

World App Design | Worldcoin

They are excited about the important role that World App plays in popularizing "decentralized" technology, and believe that the emergence of this achievement will eventually promote the popularization of privacy-protected identity proof and Internet-native financial services, thereby allowing digital currency to occupy a place in global fair distribution and public governance.

In summary, Worldcoin’s vision is very forward-looking and ambitious. The global identity (World ID), global token (Worldcoin), and wallet system (WorldAPP) it plans to establish all have extensive practical application value, which can not only help cope with the "challenges" brought by AI, but also bring new "opportunities" to the development of the digital economy.

03Risks and Challenges

Although Worldcoin has an influential founder, its advanced concept still faces many doubts and challenges. Specifically, the problems faced by Worldcoin mainly include the following aspects:

Technology and Privacy Risks

The first to bear the brunt is Worldcoin's "iris scanning" technology solution. It has not yet been widely verified and applied, so many people are questioning the reliability and stability of this biometric technology, especially its ability to protect privacy. Edward Snowden, the protagonist of the US "Prism Gate" incident, wrote on Twitter: "The human body is not a punching machine." Expressing his resistance to human "iris scanning."

In this regard, although the Worldcoin team claims that the "IrisCode" is the only information that leaves the iris scanning device Orb, the user's original biometric information will be destroyed immediately, and the on-chain identity is fully encrypted and secure and untraceable, this cannot completely eliminate people's concerns about privacy. Even privacy and surveillance experts have warned that "collecting biometric data, even if it is not saved, is still a risky business."

In addition, the popularity of the iris scanning device Orb is also an important issue. Worldcoin needs to ensure that the device can achieve wide coverage and is easily accessible to users around the world. In response, Worldcoin has taken some measures, such as providing coupons and loan incentives, to promote user registration and the popularization of the device, but the actual results are minimal.

At present, Worldcoinn has not yet received widespread legal recognition, so its compliance also faces certain difficulties and challenges.

For example, some countries and regions, such as the United States, have restrictions and controls on World ID and Worldcoin, which prevents Worldcoin from entering these countries. Currently, Worldcoin has only been licensed in 24 countries, 14 of which are developing countries and 8 are in Africa.

However, residents in poor areas generally lack legal protection and the cost of data collection is the lowest. Collecting user data in such places has been accused by many media as "a disguised form of crypto-colonialism."

Ari Paul, founder of crypto investment firm Block Tower Capital, once pointed out that "Worldcoin's core business model is to steal data from the world's poorest people, test the data in a way that exploits the poor, and monetize it. This is just a criminal act of stealing data from the poor through fraud." Moreover, users in poor areas generally know little about Worldcoin and the crypto industry, so it may not be a good thing for them to join the crypto world.

In addition, regulation is a risk that Worldcoin cannot avoid, after all, currency is the power of sovereign states. Libra, a stablecoin project that once carried the vision of "world currency", could not escape the fate of "abortion" even with Facebook's support.

Competition and financial risks

The digital currency market is highly competitive, and Worldcoin needs to face challenges from other competitors. Mature cryptocurrency projects, such as plnetwork, are difficult to shake, and emerging competitors are constantly launching more attractive products and services, which will affect Worldcoin's market share and user base. In addition, Worldcoin also has to face the financial risks of the high volatility of cryptocurrency prices.

As an innovative cryptocurrency project, Worldcoin combines AI, blockchain technology, and the concept of basic income (UBI) to provide sustainable and fair income solutions for everyone in the world.

It is Sam Altman's vision of the future world of general artificial intelligence (AGI). As he mentioned earlier, "I hope that the advantages, access, and governance of AGI can be widely and fairly shared." This is also recognized by "son" ChatGPT, which said that "AI and Web3 can promote each other and jointly support more innovation."

Although Worldcoin will still face many doubts and challenges in the short term, it is undoubtedly one of the most promising crypto applications to date.

“As AI flourishes, the need for systems that provide proof of personhood, as well as systems for wealth redistribution and global governance, is growing.”

Sam Altman is so sure about the future of Worldcoin.

$WLD