Worldcoin, a new crypto unicorn backed by crypto giant a16z and co-founded by Sam Altman, has unveiled its proposal to allow anyone to collect free coins in order to drive global crypto adoption.
Providing free cryptocurrency to the entire world may sound like a pipe dream, but the Worldcoin project has received $25 million in funding from Andreessen Horowitz, Coinbase Ventures, 1confirmation, Blockchange, and Day One Ventures, as well as a $1 billion valuation.
Worldcoin, which was co-founded by Alex Blania, Sam Altman, and Max Novendstern, had over 100,000 people from around the world participate in its test period and wants to reach over a billion people within two years. In comparison, as of 2021, there are over 300 million crypto users globally.
Worldcoin co-founder and CEO Alex Blania told Cointelegraph that the co-founders met in 2019 and began working on the project in early 2020.
“Sam believed that if we could develop a new, collectively owned, internationally distributed cryptocurrency, we could truly alter the world,” he stated.
Anyone can create accounts, submit transactions, and participate in the validation process with Worldcoin, which is developed as a layer two on top of the Ethereum blockchain. The mainnet is anticipated to begin next year.
Blania highlighted that the inclusive nature of its ecosystem, the distribution of free coins, and the incentives for new sign-ups are three levers that will promote crypto acceptance. Worldcoin registration does not necessitate any prior financial resources.
By scanning the person’s irises using a special technology called Orb, Worldcoin verifies that they are legitimate and have claimed their free share.
As “Orb operators,” independent entrepreneurs from all over the world will operate these gadgets. Blania noted that the operators are compensated for each Worldcoin user they sign up, for example:
“An Orb operator in Indonesia partnered with one of the biggest food delivery companies in the country to sign up every driver, rented a whole storefront in a shopping mall to leverage high foot traffic, and was even invited by the chief of a nearby village to introduce the whole village to Worldcoin. His experience with this village was so successful that it resulted in eight other villages asking him to do the same.”
The mere thought of an eye scan conjures up Big Brother-style fears about user privacy. The Orb will turn a person’s eye scan into a numeric code, according to the announcement, so the original image “does not need to be saved or uploaded.”
To protect users’ privacy, the underlying system will not link this numeric code to their wallets or transactions. Users can join the Worldcoin network without having their eyes scanned, but they will be unable to claim free coins.
To make the onboarding process easier, the team is working on non-custodial mobile wallet software. It would facilitate user transactions and serve as a navigator for locating nearby Orb operators.
They want to scale things quickly, with 50,000 Orbs distributed every year, maybe with the future funding rounds in the coming months.
