Setting sail on a futuristic world where AGI and super intelligent beings thrive amongst humans,  a world where you have to prove yourself to be human – Worldcoins are supposedly out to help you. Using orb-sized devices that once scanned your iris, your biometric is going to be the human identifier needed to survive. As dystopian as the futuristic world sounds, Sam Altman’s Worldcoin is preparing for it. The project is released to the world, but with a catch. The very place where Sam Altman’s Worldcoin was founded, will be deprived of the service. World coins are not available in the US. Surprised?  

Worldcoin, an iris biometric cryptocurrency which was founded in 2019 by Sam Altman, Max Nivebdstern, and Alex Bania is backed by VC Andreessen Horowitz. The project provides crypto tokens WLD in exchange for scanning your eyeballs during registration, and aims to distinguish humans from AI online, and enable a global democratic process and increase economic opportunity. While this marks Altman’s foray into cryptocurrency, the company’s access to human assets in the form of biometrics has raised a lot of questions, but that didn’t stop the positive uptick in price of over 17% within 24 hours of its worldwide release. But, an irony ensues. 

Not Under My Watch

The biggest irony of all this is that in a country where the latest technology produced by Silicon Valley sees the light of day in their territory first before it reaches the rest of the world, Worldcoin is facing the opposite route. Owing to regulatory restrictions in the cryptocurrency market, the company cannot operate in the country. Following the crypto debacle that occurred with FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried, US regulatories have been vigilant with its control. 

A number of regulatory bodies such as the Securities and Exchange Commision (SEC), the Commodity Futures Trading Commision (CFTC), the Federal Trade Commision (FTC) and many others. However, none of them have banned any form of cryptocurrency in the US. It is possible that Worldcoin is taking a precautionary approach to avoid any form of backlash that can occur. 

Though not available for US citizens, the ‘Orb tour’, for educating and answering questions about the same has been set up in Miami, San Francisco and New York City. Altman said that when he started the project, he did not think that it would end up becoming ‘world minus the US coin.’ He doesn’t seem perturbed by the situation – “95% of the world’s population is not in the US. The US does not make or break a project like this.” 

Source: Twitter

Coin for the ‘World’

From its beta period, the project has over 2 million users, and has now scaled its operation to 35 cities across 20 countries. One of the strangest occurrences is that a company that is building a digital asset platform using iris scans, has been launched in the EU. The EU, which is believed to be one of the strictest regulatory bodies when it comes to security and privacy, have also allowed Worldcoin. Known for penalising tech companies for using sensitive user data, and even banning apps from operating. For instance, Meta’s Threads was not launched in the EU owing to privacy concerns. Considering how such restrictions have prevented the functionings of big tech in the past, the move to allow Worldcoin there is surprising. 

However, it looks like countries are slowly waking up. In a latest development, the regulatory bodies in the UK said that they will be making enquiries about the Worldcoin project. It is possible that other countries may follow. 

Route through Developing Markets

In a country such as India, where there are no guidelines or regulations in place for any form of disputes around cryptocurrency, trading will be at an investor’s risk. Hence, the whole operation in India is not under any form of restrictions at the moment. Orb operators are set up across 18 locations in India, including Bengaluru. 

It is interesting to note that Worldcoin has been released in a number of developing countries including African countries such as Kenya, Uganda, Nairobi, and Lisbon. These countries do not have any regulatory framework for trading cryptocurrency – giving a free pass for Worldcoin. 

World coin not being available in the US sounds like one of those anticlimactic endings, however the company has never ruled out the market. Looks like Altman couldn’t find any way to make it currently happen but nothing seems impossible. After all, even the EU was reportedly influenced to weaken the EU AI Act to reduce the regulatory burden on OpenAI.  

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