Trading at $1.27 at press time, the price per WLD token has dropped by 53% since its $2.71 price peaked on the project’s launch date, CoinMarketCap data shows.
Since the launch of Sam Altman’s Worldcoin, several regulatory bodies across the world have raised concerns over its privacy attribute.
In one such instance, United Kingdom’s Information Commissioner’s Office released a statement on July 31, that Worldcoin was rife with data privacy issues that local regulators intended to look into.
Another announcement was made by the Kenyan government on 02 August, suspecting Worldcoin’s operations, citing a risk evaluation by their government agencies.
The value of the WLD token has been under pressure due to these regulatory inspections. Social activity surrounding the token has decreased over the past month, indicating a sharp decline in interest.
According to Santiment, an on-chain data provider, WLD’s social volume and dominance witnessed a steep decline of 95% and 74% respectively, as evaluated in the past 30 days. This has consequently decreased the hype over the project.
Moreover, the growing regulatory issues have resulted in a fall in WLD’s demand. As per the data, the daily account of addresses generated to trade WLD has been trending down since July 26 and has fallen by 98%.
Owing to this trend, it was seen that where 1673 addresses completed WLD transactions on 25 July, the number dropped to less than 150 addresses on 25 August.
A subsequent analysis of WLD's profitability showed that its holders have continued to book profits despite the recent price decline.
Santiment’s report at press time cited that the ratio of WLD’s on-chain transaction volume profit to loss was 1.998.
A ratio of 1.998 suggested that there was a $1 loss for every $1.998 in profits from WLD transactions. This ratio was positive, indicating that WLD transactions generated more profits than losses. In other words, the daily on-chain transactions generated nearly twice as much profit as losses.
While daily traders have discovered a means to avoid losses on their daily trades, the majority of WLD holders continue to lose money. 98% of WLD token owners, according to IntoTheBlock, were "out of money" as of the time of writing.
According to Ricardo Macieira, the general manager for Europe at Tools For Humanity, the company behind the Worldcoin project, the company is on a mission of “building the biggest financial and identity community” possible. The idea is that as they build this infrastructure, they will allow other third parties to use the technology.
Worldcoin’s iris-scanning technology has been met with both excitement and concern. On one hand, it offers a unique way to verify identity and enable instant cross-border financial transactions. On the other hand, there are concerns about privacy and the potential misuse of biometric data. Data watchdogs in Britain, France, and Germany have said they are looking into the project.
Despite these concerns, Worldcoin has already seen significant adoption. According to the company, 2.2 million people have signed up, mostly during a trial period over the last two years. The company has also raised $115 million from venture capital investors including Blockchain Capital, a16z crypto, Bain Capital Crypto, and Distributed Global in a funding round in May.
Worldcoin’s website mentions various possible applications for its technology, including distinguishing humans from artificial intelligence, enabling “global democratic processes,” and showing a “potential path” to universal basic income. However, these outcomes are not guaranteed.
Most people interviewed by Reuters at sign-up sites in Britain, India, and Japan last week said they were joining to receive the 25 free Worldcoin tokens the company says verified users can claim. Macieira said that Worldcoin would continue rolling out operations in Europe, Latin America, Africa, and “all the parts of the world that will accept us.”
Companies could pay Worldcoin to use its digital identity system. For example, if a coffee shop wants to give everyone one free coffee, then Worldcoin’s technology could be used to ensure that people do not claim more than one coffee without the shop needing to gather personal data.
It remains to be seen how Worldcoin’s technology will be received by governments and businesses. The potential benefits are clear: a secure way to verify identity without the need for personal data. However, there are also concerns about privacy and security that must be addressed.
Worldcoin’s plans to expand globally and offer its iris-scanning and identity-verification technology to other organizations is an exciting development in the world of cryptocurrency and digital identity. While there are concerns about privacy and security that must be addressed, the potential benefits of this technology are clear. It will be interesting to see how governments and businesses respond to this new offering from Worldcoin.
Privacy issues with the Worldcoin cryptocurrency project, a venture by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has been in talks since the announcement of its official launch. Several countries have now started considering its potential threats and are looking into the issue with much significance.
Adding to this, Germany became the third European country ato admit investigating Worldcoin, after France and the US. Thereby, it seems like it would be tough regulatory road ahead for the venture.
The head of Bavarian State Office for Data Protection Supervision, Germany's data watchdog, recently noted that that they have been investigating Worldcoin since November 2022 over suspicion of the venture’s potential of accessing "sensitive data at a very large scale."
Despite being officially launched just last week, Worldcoin continues collecting iris scans from individuals all over the world for the past two years to add to its database. The company claims that this will enable users to verify their identity as humans in the developing age of artificial intelligence by connecting human identity to specific biometric data. While there is hint of intrigue in the project’s idea, it has raised concerns of the critiques.
For instance, when reporters were dispatched to the project to have their irises scanned, Gizmodo and Futurism both reported that Orb operators did not ask for any prior identification or confirmation that participants are who they claim to be. In the underdeveloped world, participants in the project's pilot program have expressed feeling duped by the trade. Furthermore, since a blockchain is involved, it is unclear whether an individual can ask to have their data removed from the company's database.
However, neither these European data watchdogs nor Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, whose blockchain Worldcoin relies on, are persuaded that this type of "proof-of-personhood" venture is ready for a widespread adoption.
In a blog post regarding Worldcoin, Buterin claimed that "if even one Orb manufacturer is malicious or hacked, it can generate an unlimited number of fake iris scan hashes, and give them World IDs."
This only leads us to one conclusion, we will not be convinced until Worldcoin reveals what exactly they do with the collected data.
Worldcoin is OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's attempt to corner the market for humanness verification by persuading enough mobile users to have their eyes scanned in exchange for cryptocurrency tokens.
One reason is the advancement in Altman's generative AI technology is making it more difficult to discern between bot-generated and human digital behavior. But don’t worry, he’s got an eyeball-scanning orb-plus-crypto-token to sell humanity on for that.
Now, any willing individual can acquire Worldcoin's “digital token” by selling their biometric data. This situation is rising in four European markets: The U.K., France, Germany, and Spain. This has further raised concerns of privacy regulators who are all set to investigate Worldcoin on what they are doing to their personal data.
In regards to this, the UK Information Commission Office has released a public statement, stating it will be making inquiries about the Worldcoin launch held earlier this week. “Organisations must conduct a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) before starting any processing that is likely to result in high risks, such as processing special category biometric data. Where they identify high risks that they cannot mitigate, they must consult the ICO,” they added.
In a further remark, the French administrative regulatory body for ensuring data privacy law, CNIL reviewed the issue. In its initial investigation, CNIL declared that it has selected its Bavarian counterpart as the leading organization in Europe to look into Worldcoin and that it supports their inquiry. However, Bavaria's data protection agency had no immediate response when contacted by AFP on Friday.
According to its website, Worldcoin intends to establish the "world's largest identity and financial public network" with its cryptocurrency and identification system.
Earlier this week, countering the allegations, Altman and co-founder Blania noted on Twitter that Worldcoin offers a "reliable solution for distinguishing humans from AI online while preserving privacy."
They added that Worldcoin, as a blockchain-based technology will help in improving economic opportunities and democratic processes.
While the most well-known blockchain, which powers the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, is infamous for being slow and expensive due to the requirement of enormous computer processing power to validate transactions as part of its system to reward processors with new bitcoins, Worldcoin can offer lower costs and faster data transfer while ensuring secure transactions.