Worldcoin Wants to Scan Your Eyeballs: Here's Why
What Is Worldcoin and Its World ID?
Did you know that it only takes three seconds of voice audio for artificial intelligence to recreate your voice, opening you up to a multitude of scams, including identity theft and financial fraud? As a result of the technology’s alarming rate of development, legislators are struggling to catch up and put protections in place to prevent such scams. However, the answer to the issues caused by an AI-powered world may not be in legislation but in digital biometric IDs like World ID, part of the Worldcoin system.
What Is Worldcoin?
Worldcoin is a digital ecosystem aimed at proving the authenticity of humans in a world of AI-generated deepfakes and content. In other words, its technology is focused on allowing the ability to accurately distinguish between real people and deep fake likenesses. The platform, founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, comprises three parts:
Worldcoin: A blockchain protocol focused on global accessibility and anonymity. As the name suggests, this is also a cryptocurrency token that app users can send and receive.
World ID: Word ID is how the Worldcoin ecosystem verifies the authenticity of humans, using silver orb-shaped cameras located across 34 countries, including the United States and United Kingdom.
World App: The World App is a mobile platform for users to access their Worldcoin account, and send and receive dollars, as well as cryptocurrency and Worldcoin tokens.
After verification, users are given what is essentially a passport that proves their so-called humanness. Though this might not seem necessary now, if AI development continues to rapidly advance and permeate the digital world, being able to verify your human identity may prove invaluable.
How Does Worldcoin Work?
To become a Worldcoin user, you can simply download the World App from mobile app stores. Upon signing up, you’ll be given a Worldcoin token “grant” that’s worth real money. However, this grant is given in reserve until you verify your humanness by visiting your nearest Word ID Orb, which tends to be located in your country's prime tech hubs, such as London, Barcelona, or San Francisco.
Once located, you verify your humanness by staring into a camera embedded in the Orb that takes a photo of your eyeballs. The Orb uses iris biometrics to establish an individual's uniqueness and generate a valid World ID. A person’s World ID can then be used to anonymously prove their humanness in online settings.
After verifying your identity, you’ll receive your Worldcoin grant, which you’ll eventually be able to withdraw for U.S. dollars; currently, the platform has limited withdrawal options, only allowing funds to be sent to crypto wallets. In fact, aside from proving authenticity, the Worldcoin ecosystem is attempting to create a universal basic income for its users by equally distributing its ten billion available tokens.
Would you let Worldcoin scan your eyeballs?
What Are the Benefits of World ID?
As if gaining a universal basic income wasn’t enough of an incentive to adopt Worldcoin, it comes with several additional benefits.
Social Media: Word ID can be used to prevent bots from abusing social media platforms, creating spam, and manipulating algorithms by enabling users to log in with their World ID.
Elections and Politics: Voter fraud is always a hot topic with every election cycle that rolls by due to the digital voting system. However, with World ID, users can authenticate their humanness, reducing the chances of hackers manipulating votes.
Money Distribution: Worldcoin offers a decentralized way to manage and distribute so-called digital dollars, not just cryptocurrency. The Worldcoin website speculates that the platform can be used to help distribute money during emergencies, such as natural disasters.
Fraud Protection: Using Word ID, individuals can prove their authenticity, making it difficult for scammers to steal their identity and access their financial information.
Potential Risks of Worldcoin
A system that has the potential to be as pervasive as Worldcoin is, of course, not without its potential risks–some of which are substantial, though hypothetical.
Disenfranchisement: If World ID was integrated into the voting system, it would likely disenfranchise several groups of already vulnerable people, including the elderly, who have limited technical ability, and those from low-income communities with limited access to technology. The argument against its negative impact on the latter is that Worldcoin will provide a universal basic income, providing greater access to amenities.
Marginalization: By the same (no pun intended) token as the above point, a digital ID like World ID opens communities up to marginalization. This is because, as society becomes more reliant on digital IDs, those without them will likely lose access to certain amenities and privileges. For example, if internet service providers (ISPs) decided their customers must prove their humanness with a digital ID for security purposes, those without digital IDs would be unable to access the internet.
Instability of Crypto: Cryptocurrency is considered a highly volatile investment due to the influence exercised over the market by government regulations, media hype, and cyber attacks. This means, although World App makes crypto investment a breeze, it’s not the best choice if your knowledge of the marketplace is limited. With the app aimed at being widely accessible, this creates the possibility of many unequipped individuals losing their money.
The above risks pose a significant threat to both World ID users and non-users. However, these risks can be mitigated with greater government regulation and exceptions for certain communities. It’s important to keep in mind that these risks are hypothetical and do not necessarily reflect the reality of Worldcoin’s services in its current state.
Word ID SDK: Developers Needed
The use and efficacy of the Worldcoin ecosystem are dependent on its implementation within digital systems, from social networks to ePOS systems. As a result, and probably unsurprisingly for those of you familiar with OpenAI, Word ID offers an open-source software development kit (SDK).
The World ID SKD is poised for web, mobile, and on-chain integrations, and comes with a JS web widget, developer portal, simulator, and documentation. What’s more, the World ID SDK is designed to support existing open identity standards, including OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect. According to their website, the World ID SDK makes integration “fast and simple.”
Would You Integrate World ID With Your Business?
The Worldcoin system offers an enticing proposition: Eradicate unwanted AI and bots from your business platform and increase security measures against fraudulent activity. But are these benefits worth the high-risk factors of isolated potential users? World ID undoubtedly has a place in the digital world, and with the rise of deepfake content and AI-driven scams, it will likely be adopted by many businesses–will yours be one of them?
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