Sam Altman Gets 100 Million for Worldcoin Cryptocurrency
By Corporal Punishmenton 05/20/2023 |

Sam Altman has recently raised 100 million dollars for his latest venture, Worldcoin. Worldcoin is a cryptocurrency that aims to create a global digital currency accessible to everyone, regardless of location, wealth, or identity.
But there's a catch. To get Worldcoin, you have to scan your eyeball with a particular device called an Orb. The Orb is a spherical scanner that uses infrared light to capture a unique biometric signature of your iris. This signature is used to verify your identity and prevent fraud or duplication.
The idea is that anyone who scans their eyes with the Orb will receive a share of Worldcoin for free, no strings attached. The project claims that this will create a fair and inclusive distribution of wealth and power and that Worldcoin will become the universal basic income of the future.
The Orb generates a cryptographic hash that represents your iris and does store an images of your eye and face. (section 2.1 https://worldcoin.pactsafe.io/rkuawsvk5.html) The hash is stored on the Worldcoin blockchain, along with your Worldcoin balance. The Orb does not collect any other personal information about you, such as your name, address, or social security number; however, it would know your unique hash -- this is sort of the same thing as how advertising companies follow you around without having "personally identifiable information. They have your hash.
I picture it as a combination Voight-Kampf machine shoved into a Destiny Ghost with Minority Report overtones.

Sounds safe, right? Well....... Some critics have raised concerns about the privacy and security implications of scanning your eyeball for a cryptocurrency. They argue that the Orb could be hacked, stolen, or misused by malicious actors who could access your biometric data and potentially compromise your identity or finances..... Or someone could steal your eye and take your money. (Come on - I know that's dark, but I can't be the only one who thought of it.)
Others have questioned the ethics and motives of Sam Altman and his team. They wonder why they need to scan your eyeball in the first place and what they plan to do with the data they collect. They suspect that Worldcoin is not about creating a global digital currency but rather about building a massive database of biometric identifiers that could be used for surveillance, manipulation, or control.
Sounds crazy, right? Well, maybe not. After all, Sam Altman is no stranger to controversy and controversy. He has been accused of being a transhumanist who wants to merge humans with machines and create artificial superintelligence.
Also, Worldcoin is promoted as an Open Source, altruistic venture. However, OpenAI was founded as a non-profit, Open Source, altruistic venture and has been recently converted to a for-profit, closed-source project controlled by Microsoft for all intents and purposes. So maybe Sam isn't as philanthropic as he would like you to think.
These are some of the questions that Worldcoin needs to answer before it can gain widespread adoption and trust. The project is still in its early stages and has yet to launch its mainnet or coin.
Either way, Worldcoin is one of the more interesting and bizarre experiments in the history of cryptocurrency. Worth following.
Would you scan your eyeball for Worldcoin? Or would you instead stick to Bitcoin or Ethereum? Doge?
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