Looking back on the turbulent year of eye scanner World Coin

Anticipated cryptocurrency project World Coin world

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In 2023, it faced significant controversy and scrutiny.

The project has been criticized for its business model, which involves receiving cryptocurrency by scanning people’s irises, and for targeting people living in developing countries.

But one of the project’s key figures, Sam Altman (Worldcoin’s main software contributor and Tools of Humanity co-founder), is no stranger to controversy. The tech entrepreneur was fired as CEO of OpenAI, but was rehired just days after a massive backlash, with support from his followers and the Tools of Humanity themselves.

Against this background, Worldcoin’s Your unique journey as a multibillion-dollar startup with grand ambitions may have just begun. The project will attempt to balance the challenges of growth and innovation while continuing to navigate a contentious regulatory environment fraught with data privacy concerns.

Below is a summary of how the project is progressing at various points throughout 2023.

Unicorn startups start later than expected

WorldCoin, which is not yet fully launched ahead of this year, has already received a lot of attention. From late 2021, Worldcoin will published that Orb technology quickly achieved a $1 billion valuation thanks to a $25 million funding round involving large VC backers such as Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Coinbase Ventures, and Digital Current Group. Eye testing startups have been a topic of discussion among data privacy advocates.

World Coin in March 2022 High It has invested an additional $100 million at a valuation of $3 billion from investors including Khosla Ventures and a16z. The huge interest in OpenAI from ChatGPT’s parent company Altman, along with its success in raising capital worth billions of dollars, has led to increased interest in Worldcoin.

At one point, Worldcoin hoped to have 20 to 30 million signups by the end of 2022, but the project has only just gone public. The World ID Protocol and Software Development Kit will be released in March 2023. The World ID app is a mobile tool designed to help people prove they are real human beings without revealing their identity.

Worldcoin’s ability to meet expectations of quickly recruiting tens of millions of new users has been hampered by issues related to manufacturing. Iris scan sphere. Last March, Worldcoin partnered with Florida-based global manufacturing giant Jabil to solve problems related to orb production.

Wallet Launch

World Coin in May Released The self-managed mobile app has gone through beta testing and launched in over 80 countries, and the company has amassed 1.5 million users, recording 60,000 transactions per day. “It is already the fastest growing wallet in the world. “Today, one person signs up for the app every 14 seconds.” said Tiago Sada, head of product, engineering and design at Tools For Humanity at the time.

Worldcoin had to solve technical problems related to blockchain. Last July, World Coin completed the migration to the OP mainnet. But later that year, one project executive said: “We broke the chain at launch. “There were too many users.” In an effort to address on-chain issues, the project plans to roll out a new grant program for developers at a later date.

Token launch and scrutiny follow.

The inflection point for Worldcoin may have occurred in July, after the project launched its WLD token. At that time, more than 2 million people (mainly from underdeveloped countries located in the Global South) were already lining up to receive the tokens. Those verified with Worldcoin orbs were initially set to receive 25 WLD tokens.

According to The Block’s pricing page, WLD’s price rose above $3 at launch, but fell to a low of just under $1 in September. The token price then rebounded until the end of September, continuing to trade above $1.80 for several weeks. The resurgence of WLD will be paralleled by a broader rise in cryptocurrency prices.

faces regulatory scrutiny

Shortly after the launch of the Worldcoin token in July, the UK’s data protection regulator said it would investigate the project. About a week later, German regulators said they would investigate whether Worldcoin users had “sufficient and clear” information about how the project used sensitive biometric data. French regulators also said they would conduct an investigation.

Argentina began its own investigation last August, but this is probably the biggest regulatory setback to the project. When did it happen? Kenya Ministry of Home Affairs stopped Worldcoin will operate there until the relevant authorities in that country can assess what risks the project poses to the population. At that time, Worldcoin had already registered hundreds of thousands of people in Kenya.

Growth slows after a fast start

When discussing the project publicly, Worldcoin executives appear to be taking a slightly more humble approach when discussing expectations, recognizing that they are well behind their original predictions for adoption. Last September, Altman became the face of Worldcoin. It’s a huge operational challenge that involves both manufacturing the spheres and facing government resistance to collecting biometric data.

“We’ve seen a really crazy surge in the weeks since launch,” said Alex Blania, co-founder of Worldcoin. “The worst thing for us was that there were long, long lines of people waiting to be installed almost everywhere. And that was really difficult to manage.”

Worldcoin said more than 1% of the population in countries such as Chile and Portugal have registered for the project, but the overall number of new registrations appears to have slowed in the final months of the year.

At the time of this writing, Worldcoin is approx. 2.5 million Total number of subscriptions. More than 43 million WLD tokens were also claimed, according to the company’s website.

token sale

In early December, The Block reported that Tools for Humanity Discussions with investors regarding raising additional capital through sale of WLD token.

Two people familiar with the talks said Tools for Humanity was hoping to raise up to $50 million and that WLD would likely be priced at $1 per token. This would be a significant price discount compared to the current spot price of $2.50. However, another person close to the deal emphasized that no terms have yet been finalized.

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