That new-orb shine… may be starting to wear off. Worldcoin, the head-turning crypto project from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, is facing pushback just a week after launching its WLD token. Yesterday, Kenya’s Interior Ministry ordered the company to suspend user enrollment in the country over privacy concerns. Worldcoin says it helps confirm that a person online is actually a person IRL (think: captcha 2.0) by associating eye scans with World IDs, and it found early success in the east African country.
Buy for an eye: 350K+ Kenyans have had their irises scanned by Worldcoin’s metallic orbs in exchange for 25 WLD each — worth about $50.
Scanning for a warm welcome… but finding a cold shoulder. Kenyan officials aren’t the only ones giving Worldcoin the side-eye. France’s data-protection authority said the project’s legality “seems questionable,” and UK officials are looking into the orb (not in the iris-scanning way). Germany’s data-protection watchdog has been investigating the project since last year. The concern: Worldcoin’s handling of biometric data could put users at risk.
Flash only gets you so far… Worldcoin made waves with sci-fi-looking tech and an out-there pitch — at one point verifying a new user every eight seconds, Altman said. But now the “revolutionary” rubber’s meeting the regulatory road. Still, the biz developing Worldcoin said the project is moving ahead in Europe, Latin America, and Africa, and hinted that it could one day charge companies to use its verification services.