OpenAI founder targets US$100mln funding for Worldcoin cryptocurrency
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is close to securing a US$100mln funding round for cryptocurrency project Worldcoin, which uses iris-scanning technology to construct what it calls “the world’s largest identity and financial network” on the public blockchain.
Citing sources close to the matter, the Financial Times reported that new and existing investors have joined the funding round, with a view to launching the project in the following weeks.
Previous investors in beta-stage Woldcoin, which runs on the Ethereum Layer-2 network Optimism (OP), have included Andreessen Horowitz and disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried.
“It’s a bear market, a crypto winter. It’s remarkable for a project in this space to get this amount of investment,” one of the sources told the FT:
Worldcoin users will require an imaging device called an Orb, which the Worldcoin website says “is necessary because it is the only secure way of reliably determining uniqueness and personhood while also preserving the privacy of everyone who signs up”.
Wordcoin says the project is aimed at reducing bots and other fake accounts in the decentralised economy, but inevitable privacy risks have been raised about the venture due to its iris-scanning technology.
The website states: “Your biometric data is first processed locally on the Orb and then permanently deleted. The only data that remains is your IrisCode. This IrisCode is a set of numbers generated by the Orb and is not linked to your wallet or any of your personal information. As a result, it really tells us — and everyone else — nothing about you. All it does is stop you from being able to sign up again.”
Worldcoin says it has over 1.6 million signups on its beta-stage World App and half a million active users.