Over the course of the past year, Worldcoin has faced intense scrutiny from regulators around the world. Many governments had issues with its model and sought to shut it down.
During Wednesday’s Korea Blockchain Week 2024 event in Seoul, Alex Blania, the CEO of Tools for Humanity, hinted at Worldcoin’s latest focus. According to the Worldcoin co-founder, the privacy-preserving human identity network is still keen on distributing its iris-scanning “Orbs” to expand the project and make it more useful.
Blania cited a few networks and companies like Facebook and PayPal that have experienced tremendous growth over time. In his opinion, these entities only became useful at scale. Based on these references, all Worldcoin cares about at this point is to achieve worldwide distribution like these tech giants. Additionally, the number of verified users who use the service is crucial.
Worldcoin Records Significant Milestones
In a curated guide, Coinspeaker described Worldcoin as a blockchain-based protocol centered around World ID, a network of digital identities that preserves privacy. It is focused on providing a unique digital identity known as World ID for each person on Earth by differentiating humans from AI bots. Each person’s World ID is his proof of personality. These World IDs are generated through an iris scanning technology.
The Worldcoin project has OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Tools for Humanity Blania as its co-founders. Those who sign up by scanning their irises on an Orb device receive WLD cryptocurrency. Data from its official website confirms that Worldcoin has over 6.5 million verified World IDs across more than 160 countries.
This year, the team behind the identity network has invested heavily in expanding the service to different regions. In June, Worldcoin announced plans to set up its verification booths across six strategic locations in Ecuador‘s two major cities, Guayaquil and Quito. It already had roots in several Latin American regions, such as Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru.
Barely 30 days after the Ecuador move, the Worldcoin Foundation introduced the World ID orb verifications in Austria, increasing its database in the European market. Hence, anyone older than 18 can access the World ID orbs in Vienna. This expansion allowed Austria to join neighboring Germany in offering important proof of humanness technology in Europe.
Future Plans for Worldcoin
Over the course of the past year, Worldcoin has faced intense scrutiny from regulators around the world. Many governments had issues with its model and sought to shut it down.
Despite these challenges, Blania noted some exciting updates about the next-generation Orb device would follow shortly. He avoided divulging details about the updates but highlighted that the coming information concerns operational models. He also talked about potential collaboration with South Korean gaming industry players.
In light of other future endeavors of the orb identity network, Worldcoin plans to debut its Layer-2 blockchain dubbed World Chain. Consequently, it has initiated strategic collaborations with blockchain development firms Hyperlane, Moralis, and others. Their partnership is focused on making the new mainnet easier for users.
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