Introduction
Artificial intelligence now governs every aspect of social life. Blockchains are one of the top sectors that are shaped and affected by AI. Worldcoin is one such project that addresses the ramifications of increasing AI integration in everyday life.
What is Worldcoin (WLD)?
Worldcoin is a new cryptocurrency project that is based on the Ethereum blockchain as a layer-2 project. Worldcoin is co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Max Novendstern, and Alex Blanca.
The project is also backed by Andreessen Horowitz. The project has been in the works since 2021 and started as an experiment for ascertaining real human identification. The unique feature of Worldcoin is proof-of-personhood.
How does Worldcoin Work?
Worldcoin started as a project to promote UBI or Universal Basic Income in the wake of AI technology. To this effect, it has adopted a token distribution mechanism similar to UBI. As mentioned before the project uses PoP or proof-of-personhood as a way to distinguish real human users from AI or bot participants.
WLD uses equipment called Orb to scan the irises to ascertain human identity. The main idea behind iris scans is to be able to tell apart real humans from AI operators in a decentralized manner.
The equipment is constantly monitored for signs of tempering and can detect false iris scan attempts using contact lenses or animal eyes etc. The project assigns validators to operate the Orb. The operators go through a strict scrutiny process before the appointment.
However, they can maximize their earnings through Orb by adding more scans. WLD’s total quantity is capped at 10 billion, a number proportional to the total human population.
Each iris scan creates a unique id known as World ID. Users with a World ID can log in to the World App and earn WLD tokens. Users can create a public and private key in the World App. At present, there are 2 million verified World IDs.
The estimated growth of Orbs is 1500 an increase across 35 countries. Another important aspect of the Orb is that it used Zk-SNARKs and other cryptographic methods to store the iris-scan data as a safety measure.
Uses of Worldcoin
Here are two important use cases for the WLD project:
Decentralized Proof-of-Personhood
The most popular method of personal identification is bio-metric verification. However, in most cases, governments or private companies use fingerprint scans to Id their citizens or employees.
For the most part, proof-of-personhood data is under the control of centralized entities. WLD attempts to ensure better data privacy as well as increase accessibility in the field.
Spam Control and AI Content
AI is improving its ability to churn out digital content by the day. For example, articles written by AI have become indistinguishable from human writers.
Under such circumstances, PoP can assist the job market in distinguishing between human workers and AI bots. At the same time, administrators can upscale their ability to avoid AI-generated spam and other issues.
Worldcoin Tokenomics
WLD is an ERC-20 token that allows users to collect it via Optimism mainnet. The allocation of these tokens is in the following manner:
- 75% of WLD tokens are assigned to users, network operation costs, and ecosystem funds.
- 10% of WLD tokens are reserved with the founding team.
- 13.5% is allocated to investors and 1.7% is saved as project reserve.
It is important to note that 7.5 billion tokens for World ID holders are pre-mined before its launch. However, all of these tokens will be distributed to users at a gradual pace over the next 15 years. Around 143 million WLD tokens were unlocked at its launch on 24th July this year.
The 43 million were assigned for verified World ID holders. Meanwhile, 100 million are issued as debt to non-American market makers. At the same time, Worldcoin has announced that it intends to distribute the majority share of its tokens to new and existing users.
It means that the circulatory supply of the token is going to keep expanding as more users create new World IDs.
Conclusion
Worldcoin Orbs are manufactured by Tools for Humanity or TFH a German company. The company conducted beta testing for many years before finalizing the project and designed both World App and Orb.
A non-profit firm named Worldcoin Foundation was set up in 2022 with a focus on decentralized governance. The three directors of the Worldcoin Foundation board are in charge of 4-6 multi-sig wallets that they can use to manage smart contracts on WLD.
The project is an innovative approach but it has some caveats attached such as price volatility, orb data security, risk of data manipulation, and regulatory uncertainty among others.
