Chat GPT's CEO, Sam Altman is in the news again – This time, with another game-changing innovation:
Worldcoin.
Launched in collaboration with Alex Blania, the CEO and co-founder of Tools for Humanity, Worldcoin has finally gone live and is now active on the Optimism Mainnet.
The Worldcoin Twitter handle announced the project's debut on Monday this week, via a tweet. And so far, WLD has become the biggest thing in crypto.
The project is already enjoying massive success in under a day after its launch. And in this article, we will examine what Worldcoin is, and what makes it so special.
Vitalik also wrote a wonderful piece on the matter.
WLD is one of the biggest crypto projects of 2023. And after spending three years in the development stage, this project is ready to launch.
The main idea behind the development of Worldcoin is to create a worldwide identification system that is open to everyone (regardless of their country, location or financial background.
Mainstream DeFi already does this. So what makes WLD so special?
Well, instead of seed phrases and private keys in protocols like Ethereum and others, Worldcoin uses a technology called a "proof-of-person" (PoP) to verify the identity of its users.
This system employs the use of "Orbs".
Put simply, Orbs are devices that scan the eyes of users, as a way to verify their identity.
Orbs look like silver balls, with an iris scanner attached to them. They are about the size of bowling balls and are the backbone of the WLD project.
When an Orb scans a user's eyes, it combines this data with other kinds of information, to generate a unique ID (also called a "World ID") for the user.
Users can then use their WLD digital identity to access several financial services, like banking, payments, and even social media services.
Worldcoin received a total of $215 million in investment in May, headed by Blockchain Capital and a16z, respectively.
As mentioned earlier, these IDs, generated for users from Orbs are called World Ids.
They are the main offering of the protocol, and the company has even described them as "digital passports."
These digital passports are used to prove that a user is a real person and not an AI bot.
How can you get a World ID?
All you'd have to do is to sign up for an in-person iris scan, and have this unique ID generated.
However, this would make you one out of millions of other users.
So far, since its beta stage, the company has gained 2 million users. And after its launch this week, the WLD protocol is set to expand its reach to 35 locations in 20 countries.
And when new users have their eyes scanned, they receive some of the protocol's WLD tokens as incentives.
The price of WLD spiked by more than 80% on Monday, according to CoinMarketCap.
According to Binance's website, it reached a high of $3.34 on Monday this week and is now trading at about $2.75 at the time of writing.
Since its launch, the WLD protocol has scattered its Orbs to about 20 countries, and its World App to nearly 80 countries. It even intends to expand that figure to 120.
Worldcoin presently has roughly 200 Orbs in select cities like London, Mexico City, Berlin, Dubai, Miami, New York City, San Francisco, Seoul, and Tokyo, according to Tiago Sada, head of Product, engineering, and Design at Tools for Humanity.
However, the company has announced intentions to expand its Orb coverage to around 1,500 Orbs worldwide by the end of the year.
The Orb technology has been open-sourced to improve transparency. However, there are still ethical and privacy concerns about having these orbs scan and store data about people, in exchange for money.
So far, crypto exchanges all over the industry, have welcomed Worldcoin with open arms.
Binance, the largest centralized crypto exchange in the world, was even one of the first to announce a $WLD listing at a launch price of $0.3 per token.
Keep in mind that this token has shot up to more than $2.5 at the time of writing.
ByBit has also launched this token and is now offering it to its customers for trading and holding.
Other exchanges offering $WLD include OKX, Bitget, and BingX.
According to CoinMarketCap, Worldcoin is trading at about $2.74 at the time of writing, with a 24-hour trading volume of $266.3 million.
The cryptocurrency is currently ranked #108th, with a live market cap of $286.6 million.
CoinMarketCap also shows that the Worldcoin token has a maximum supply of 10 billion WLD coins, with an amazing 75% allocated to the Worldcoin community.
Overall, worldcoin's metrics seem promising, with solid technology to back it up.
This new cryptocurrency has plenty of potential and may be worth keeping an eye out for.
Disclaimer: Voice of Crypto aims to deliver accurate and up-to-date information, but it will not be responsible for any missing facts or inaccurate information. Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile financial assets, so research and make your own financial decisions.