OpenAI's Sam Altman launches Worldcoin crypto project

OpenAI's Sam Altman launches Worldcoin crypto project

Worldcoin, a cryptocurrency project founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, launches on July 24.

The project's core offering is its World ID, an account that only real humans can get. It allows gifting customers with crypto tokens by scanning tehir eyeball using Worldcoin's 'orb', a silber ball about the size of a bowling ball. The scan verifies the "humannness", thus creating a World ID.

Worldcoin was founded in 2020 by Sam Altman who is now recognised for his work with ChatGPT developer OpenAI. The primary person currently behind Worldcoin is Alex Blani who now serves as the CEPO of Tools for Humanity, the parent organisation developing Worldcoin, until it reaches its full stage of decentralisation.

“Worldcoin is an attempt at global scale alignment,” the digital identity and crypto payments project co-founded by OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman said in a statement Monday. “The journey will be challenging and the outcome is uncertain.”

The project has 2 million users from its beta period, and with Monday's launch, Worldcoin is scaling up 'orbing' operations to 35 cities in 20 countries. Other users can secure their tokens by downloading the company's app until they receive access to the orb.

As an enticement, those who sign up in certain countries will receive Worldcoin's cryptocurrency token WLD.

The cryptocurrency aspect of the World IDs is important because cryptocurrency blockchains can store the World IDs in a way that preserves privacy and can't be controlled or shut down by any single entity, co-founder Alex Blania told Reuters.

The project says World IDs will be necessary in the age of generative AI chatbots like ChatGPT, which produce remarkably humanlike language. World IDs could be used to tell the difference between real people and AI bots online.

"People will be supercharged by AI, which will have massive economic implications," he said to reuters.

One example Altman likes is universal basic income, or UBI, a social benefits program usually run by governments where every individual is entitled to payments. Because AI "will do more and more of the work that people now do," Altman believes UBI can help to combat income inequality. Since only real people can have World IDs, it could be used to reduce fraud when deploying UBI.

Altman said he thought a world with UBI would be "very far in the future" and he did not have a clear idea of what entity could dole out money, but that Worldcoin lays groundwork for it to become a reality.

"We think that we need to start experimenting with things so we can figure out what to do," he said.