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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s crypto project, Worldcoin (WLD), saw an increase of over 140% last week after surpassing one million daily users. On February 18, Worldcoin announced in a letter to X that its crypto wallet application, called World App, reached over one million users, marking significant growth compared to the daily active user count of 100,000 in November of the previous year.
Notable Developments in Worldcoin
Initiated in July 2023 by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Alex Blania, Worldcoin is known as a privacy-preserving digital identity verification project that rewards users with its native cryptocurrency for scanning their eye irises.
Worldcoin’s self-stated goal is to provide a Universal Basic Income globally by giving a small amount of local WLD tokens to everyone in exchange for verifying their identities. However, Worldcoin’s biometric identity system, along with its goal to initiate Universal Basic Income (UBI), has invited a fair discussion process focused on privacy concerns related to the metallic eye-scanning devices known as Orbs.
On January 31, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data (PCPD) in Hong Kong launched an investigation into Worldcoin’s local operations citing serious risks to personal data privacy. The PCPD announced that as part of the investigation, it entered six facilities controlled by Worldcoin in Hong Kong and issued a search warrant.
Worldcoin and Legal Challenges
Outside of Hong Kong, the project has attracted the attention of regulators in various jurisdictions due to privacy concerns, leading to the suspension of services in Kenya and the halt of iris scans in India.
Independent of these regulatory concerns, the Worldcoin token achieved gains of over 141% last week, supported by a broader rally in the crypto industry. Meanwhile, Worldcoin’s gains throughout the week coincided with several key updates from OpenAI.
On February 16, OpenAI introduced its new text-to-video creator, Sora, which allows users to generate video clips and scenes from text commands. A week earlier, on February 9, Altman announced that he would surprisingly try to raise a staggering 7 trillion dollars to finance and scale the company’s semiconductor chip development. While this massive figure caused astonishment in the tech world, Altman seemed largely unfazed by the situation.
