The CEO of Worldcoin has warned that a global digital ID system will be ushered in for citizens around the world whether they “like it or not.”
Worldcoin has developed a system that it pitches as “the world’s largest identity and financial public network.”
Essentially, the company has created a database that links digital cash, or Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), with a digital identity system.
The company has created its own form of digital money called the Worldcoin token (WLD).
Linked to WLD is another of Worldcoin’s products – World ID.
World ID is a digital identity system that collects biometric data for individuals and holds it in a database that links to WLD transactions.
WLD and World ID are connected and accessed via the company’s World App.
World App is “an app that enables payment, purchases, and transfers globally using digital assets and traditional currencies,” according to Worldcoin.
Currently, those who voluntarily surrender their biometric data receive “small sums” in Worldcoin’s tokens in return for signing up for the World ID scheme.
Worldcoin is co-founded by Sam Altman, the head of the company behind the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot ChapGPT, Open AI.
According to Worldcoin’s executives, World ID, or “something like” it, will soon be mandatory for anyone who wishes to partake in regular society.
World ID uses iris scanners that require a person to have their eyes scanned to prove their identity.
And while that idea may sound like a dystopian nightmare that would never catch on, people in several southern European countries, notably Spain and Portugal, are simply itching to give away their iris biometrics as proof of identity and right to a cryptocurrency transfer wallet.
The signup process involves exposing your eyes to what’s known as Worldcoin’s Orb iris scanners.
If reports are to be believed, the uptake in Spain, where the scheme first became available a year ago, is better than elsewhere.
150,000 participants in total have signed up in Spain, 20,000 new ones each day.
Plans are already in place to install a number of Orb scanners in Barcelona with more cities to follow.
Portugal is not far behind, with 120,000 participants.
Germany is said to also be warming up to the project, ever since it started expanding two months ago.
All in all, some 2 million “biometric credentials” are now operated by Worldcoin.
“Something like World ID will eventually exist, meaning that you will need to verify [you are human] on the internet, whether you like it or not,” Worldcoin CEO Alex Blania said.
“Whether you like it or not” are not the kind of words that instill confidence in such technology.
Nevertheless, that is what Blania decided to go for when describing the future.
According to Blania, digital ID will be so prevalent that it will become inevitable.
There will be no escaping the requirement to verify your identity if you want to take part in society, access your own money, buy food, etc…
Blania argues that the “progress” in linking digital cash to a biometric ID is due to the recent emergence of “AI” technology.
And he isn’t predicting that global ID and digital cash are the technology of the distant future, he asserts that it will be here within a couple of years.
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