Sam Altman of OpenAI Introduces Worldcoin Cryptocurrency Initiative

On Monday, Worldcoin, a cryptocurrency initiative established by Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, is set to be unveiled.

The project’s core offering is its World ID, an account that only the right people can get. To receive a World ID, the customer registers to have a personal iris scan with a Worldcoin “ball”, which is a silver ball about the size of a bowling ball. When the ball’s iris scan verifies that the person is a real person, it creates a world ID.

The company behind Worldcoin is San Francisco and Berlin-based Tools for Humanity.

The project has 2 million users since its beta phase, and with Monday’s launch, Worldcoin expands its “orbing” operations to 35 cities in 20 countries. As an enticement, registrants in certain countries will receive Worldcoin’s cryptocurrency token WLD.

The cryptocurrency aspect of World IDs is important because cryptocurrency blockchains can store World IDs in a way that preserves privacy and no single entity can control or shut them down, co-founder Alex Blania told Reuters.

According to the project, World IDs are essential in the age of generative AI chatbots like ChatGPT, which produce remarkably human-like language. World IDs could be used to distinguish between real people and AI bots online.

Major cryptocurrency exchange Binance announced that it will list Worldcoin and the initial opening of trading is expected to take place on Monday at 09:00 GMT.

Altman told Reuters that Worldcoin could also help address how generative AI is changing the economy.

“AI will add more people, which will have huge economic implications,” he said.

One example Altman likes is universal basic income, or UBI, which is usually a government-run social benefit program where everyone is entitled to payments. Since AI is “doing more and more work that people do now,” Altman believes UBI can help combat income inequality. Since only real people can have a World ID, it could be used to reduce fraud in implementing UBI.

Altman said he thought a UBI world would be “very far in the future” and had no clear idea of who would be distributing the money, but Worldcoin is laying the groundwork for it to become a reality.

“We think we need to start trying things to figure out what to do,” he said.