WorldCoin Eye-Scanning Crypto Project To Raise $100 Million: Report

The WorldCoin eye-scanning crypto project will raise $100 million which will see its valuation go to $3 billion so let’s read more in today’s latest cryptocurrency news.

The Worldcoin eye-scanning project aims to raise $100 million that will help hit a valuation of over $3 billion. According to the reports citing anonymous sources, the round includes funding from Khosla Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz. The startup became popular in October and boasted a Series A funding round led by Andreessen which also includes Coinbase Ventures, Multicoin, Digital Currency Group as well as FTX founder Sam Bankman Fried and Reid Hoffman.

I think Worldcoin is more privacy-preserving than centralized services we use today. All Worldcoin, or anyone, could ever tell is if someone has already signed up for the service.

The hash is cryptographically decoupled from the wallet and all future transactions.

— Sam Altman (@sama) October 23, 2021

Co-founder by Sam Altman, the president of Y Combinator, Worldcoin is an ETH-based token that aims to distribute something akin to a universal basic income for the people of the world It is much similar to projects like Proof of Humanity and Circles which are working on similar initiatives. The funds that are not confirmed yet, are much needed and Bloomberg even noted that it had hit a pause button on the work within seven of the 20 or so countries where it was active after local contractors departed or regulations made doing business impossible while it also required smartphones for sign-ups and limited access in countries where the flip phones are in the norm still.

While most cryptocurrencies can extend beyond the borders without a lot of in the way of government buy-in, Worldcoin is not just a typical crypto company. To verify that a person’s life is eligible for the free token, it will use the ORB which is a device that scans irises to make sure that they are both real and haven’t been scanned previously.

While the startup said that n other personal information is required to get scanned, the image will get translated into data and will then get discarded, while Edward Snowden argued that it could be abused potentially because of the hashes of the scans being saved:

“Hashes that match future scans. Don’t catalog eyeballs.”

Altman responded:

“Experimentation with new approaches to privacy and identity seem good to me. Everyone can decide what they want to use and not use.”

The hope for Worldcoin is that people will decide to get the scan and it has already scanned 450,000 people in about 20 countries. With the latest funding, they could get more people to get scanned.